5 Dollars The Farmers Bank of Sandstone

Sandstone, Michigan was little more than a hamlet when this note was issued — the township had been organized only in 1836, and the Farmers Bank of Sandstone was among dozens of wildcat institutions that sprang up across Michigan almost immediately after the state legislature passed its liberal free banking law in March 1837. The law required specie reserves but enforcement was farcical; inspectors reported banks with the same barrels of coin being carted between institutions ahead of audits.

Michigan's legislature repealed the free banking act in 1839, rendering most of these institutions defunct. Notes from Sandstone-area banks are scarce precisely because the bank's operational window was so brief.