5 Dollars National Bank Note, 'Brown Back'

National Bank Notes of this type were not obligations of the issuing bank alone — they carried the full faith of the U.S. government as backing, which is why the BEP printed a uniform plate for the entire series and simply added each bank's charter details afterward. The "Brown Back" designation comes from the distinctive sienna-toned geometric lathe work on the reverse, a deliberate departure from the green reverses of the preceding Series 1875 notes.

Fayetteville, North Carolina chartered banks slowly in the post-Reconstruction years, and notes from smaller Southern nationals in this series survive in genuinely low numbers — redemption rates were high, and what circulated hard rarely came back intact. Hatch's engraving on the face plate is crisp work, though the design itself was Casilear's from an earlier generation.