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5 Dollars The Cochituate Bank - Massachusetts
| Issuer | The Cochituate Bank, Boston, Massachusetts |
|---|---|
| Year | 1853 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 179 × 72 mm |
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| Obverse description | Black intaglio-printed note with a vignette of sailing ships at sea at center left and a standing sailor figure at right. A blue-green FIVE denomination underprint occupies the center of the note, serving as a counterfeit deterrent. The upper portion carries the bank name and state name in bold letterpress text, with the promise-to-pay clause and dated signature lines below. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is otherwise unprinted on plain paper stock, bearing only the blue-green FIVE denomination underprint in large block letters at center, printed in mirror image as visible through the note from the obverse side, a typical anti-counterfeiting device of the era. |
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| Comments |
The Cochituate Bank took its name from Lake Cochituate, the reservoir that supplied Boston with water from 1848 — the civic pride in that infrastructure project was fresh enough that a new bank would trade on it. Rawdon, Wright, Hatch & Edson were at the height of their influence during this period, producing notes for hundreds of state-chartered institutions before their absorption into the American Bank Note Company in 1858.
Massachusetts free banking in the 1850s generated an enormous volume of small-institution notes, and the Cochituate series is no exception — counterfeit detectors of the period list it routinely, suggesting the genuine article circulated widely enough to be worth faking.