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5 Dollars McKean County Bank - Pennsylvania
| Issuer | McKean County Bank |
|---|---|
| Year | 1851-1859 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 5 Dollars (5 USD) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Three small red numeral-5 counters are positioned at left, center, and right along the upper portion of the note. At lower left, a medium vignette depicts a farmer with horses and buggy loading cut boards, while at lower right a reclining young woman appears in repose. A cursive red FIVE overprint occupies the center bottom, serving as an additional denomination underprint. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA THE McKean County Bank Will pay TO BEARER ON DEMAND Five Dollars Smethport FIVE Bald, Cousland, & Co. Philed & New York |
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| Comments |
McKean County Bank operated out of Smethport, a remote lumber town in the Pennsylvania Allegheny highlands, and its notes circulated in a region where hard money was genuinely scarce and out-of-state redemption was largely theoretical. Baldwin, Bald & Cousland occupied a narrow window in American bank note printing history — the partnership existed only from around 1855 to 1858 before reorganizing into the American Bank Note Company in 1858, making any note attributable specifically to that imprint a relatively tight date range by default.
Pennsylvania's free banking environment of the 1850s meant McKean's paper competed against dozens of similarly obscure county banks, many of which failed before the Civil War's demand for a national currency eliminated them entirely.