6 Dollars Peoples' Bank of Paterson

The $6 denomination was a product of the "broken bank" era's eccentric arithmetic — odd amounts like $3, $6, and $7 were deliberately chosen to frustrate counterfeiters, who tended to focus their efforts on round-denomination notes that were easier to pass in volume. Casilear, Durand, Burton & Edmonds was a capable New York engraving house active through the 1830s before its principals scattered into successor firms; Durand in particular became one of the more respected bank note engravers of the antebellum period.

The Peoples' Bank of Paterson operated under New Jersey's permissive pre-free-banking charter regime, and like most state-chartered institutions of the decade, its actual specie reserves bore little formal relationship to its note issuance.