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5 Dollars Searsport Bank - Maine
| Issuer | Searsport Bank |
|---|---|
| Year | 1853-1867 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Obverse description | At left, a guilloche-framed numeral 5 counterpart; left of center, an oval portrait vignette of a young woman within a lathe-work border; at center, a large eagle in flight above a harbour scene with sailing ships at anchor; lower right, an anchor motif serves as an additional counter. At bottom center, a large red letterpress FIVE panel with ornamental border serves as the primary denomination underprint. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | SEARSPORT BANK FIVE |
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| Comments |
Searsport Bank was chartered in 1853 in a small Waldo County coastal town then at the height of its shipbuilding prominence — Searsport produced more deep-water sea captains per capita than virtually any other American town, a fact its merchants wore with genuine pride. Whether that maritime identity influenced the bank's note designs is unverifiable, but the institution itself was very much a product of that local prosperity.
The American Bank Note Company imprint places this firmly in the consolidated era after the 1858 merger of seven competing security printers. The Haxby G8c suffix indicates a plate letter variant within the series, suggesting multiple printing runs across the note's fourteen-year circulation window — which ended, like most Maine state bank issues, when National Banking Act taxation made small-state charters economically unviable by 1867.