50 Dollars New Orleans Canal and Banking Co.

The Canal and Banking Company was chartered by Louisiana in 1831 primarily to finance the construction of the New Orleans Canal — the navigation channel linking the city to Lake Pontchartrain — with banking privileges attached as the revenue mechanism. By the 1850s the canal itself was largely a commercial disappointment, but the bank had become one of the more solvent institutions in the South, operating under Louisiana's notably rigorous 1842 Banking Act, which mandated one-third specie reserves against circulation. That law made Louisiana banks unusually resilient heading into the panics of the decade.

Rawdon, Wright, Hatch & Edson held some of the most sophisticated engraving equipment in North America at mid-century before their 1858 merger into the American Bank Note Company.