目录
| 正面描述 | 登录 以查看详情 |
|---|---|
| 正面铭文 | 登录 以查看详情 |
| 背面描述 | The reverse of this walrus skin parchment note is plain and unprinted, showing only the natural texture and surface of the parchment substrate, which served as the primary anti-counterfeiting characteristic of these colonial issues. |
| 背面铭文 | 登录 以查看详情 |
| 签名 | 登录 以查看详情 |
| 防伪类型 | Substrate |
| 防伪描述 | 登录 以查看详情 |
| 变体 | 登录 以查看详情 |
| 备注 |
The Russian-American Company's walrus hide notes are among the most materially unusual monetary instruments ever produced in North America. Issued by a chartered trading monopoly — not a state bank — to pay workers and fur traders at remote Alaskan outposts where coined metal was chronically scarce, these notes circulated in a closed economy with no practical exit for most holders.
The substrate itself was a pragmatic response to a genuine supply problem: paper could not reliably reach Sitka. The hide resisted moisture and rough handling in ways that imported paper could not. The security feature was essentially the material — counterfeiting walrus parchment in the field was not a realistic proposition.
The Company lost its monopoly charter in 1862, the same year these notes ceased. Redemption for surviving holders was neither guaranteed nor swift.