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50 Dollars City of New Orleans - Municipality No. One
| Issuer | City of New Orleans, Municipality No. 1 |
|---|---|
| Year | 1837 |
| Type | Vouchers |
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| Obverse description | Printed in brown and light brown on plain paper, the obverse presents three principal vignettes in engraved intaglio style: at left, an allegorical figure of Navigation; at center, a detailed architectural vignette of the Saint Louis Hotel in New Orleans; and at right, a figure of the Goddess Athena. The numeral 50 appears below the Navigation allegory and above the Athena figure. The text body, arranged across the full width of the note, details the terms of the municipal bond obligation dated 30th October 1837, with spaces left for manuscript completion of the bearer's name and treasurer's and mayor's signatures. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | CITY OF NEW ORLEANS INTEREST PAYABLE SEMI-ANNUALLY Municipality No. 1 Promise to pay_____ year after date to______Comproller or order FIFTY dollars with interest at the rate of SIX per centum. Agreeably to an ordinance of the council of said MUNICIPALITY Approve 30th October 1837. NEW ORLEANS ______Treasurer.______Mayor John V. Childs X. Orleans. |
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| Comments |
New Orleans operated under a bizarre tripartite municipal structure from 1836 to 1852, when the city was formally divided into three semi-autonomous municipalities — each with its own council, budget, and critically, its own borrowing authority. Municipality No. 1 covered the old French Quarter and was dominated by the Creole establishment, which resisted sharing fiscal resources with the Anglo-American Second Municipality upriver. These notes were essentially municipal bonds in small denominations, issued to manage day-to-day obligations during a period when the city's finances were under severe strain from speculative land and cotton lending.
1837 is not an incidental date. The Panic of 1837 broke in May of that year, suspending specie payments across the country and forcing municipalities and quasi-banking institutions alike to paper over liquidity gaps with whatever instruments they could legally issue. John V. Childs was an active New Orleans engraver of the period, working locally rather than through the major Northern bank-note firms.