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5 Dollars The Bank of Pittsylvania - Virginia
| Issuer | Bank of Pittsylvania |
|---|---|
| Year | 1861 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Obverse description | At left, a seated female allegorical vignette; at center, a rural agricultural scene with a father and son alongside two horses pulling a plow; at lower right, a portrait of a young girl. Green Roman numeral 'V' underprints appear at center-left and center-right, with the bank and state name inscribed above the central vignette and the promise-to-pay text below. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | STATE OF VIRGINIA THE BANK OF PITTSYLVANIA Chatham _________18___ Will Pay to bearer FIVE DOLLARS on demand. _________Cash.r _________PRESIDENT American Bank Note Company, New York |
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| Comments |
The Bank of Pittsylvania was chartered in Chatham, Virginia, and this note was printed by the American Bank Note Company in New York — almost certainly before Virginia's secession in April 1861, since ABNC's New York operations would have been inaccessible to Confederate-state banks once the war began. Many Virginia obsolete notes from 1861 share this awkward origin: engraved and printed in a city that was, within months, enemy territory.
Kelly's Virginia reference documents this as a reasonably scarce issue. Pittsylvania County was tobacco country, and the bank's notes circulated in a regional economy that shifted rapidly to Confederate currency as Federal forces tightened their grip on trade routes north.