Promissory Bond - 10 Dollars

The Fenian Brotherhood's 1866 bond issue was a fundraising instrument aimed squarely at the Irish-American diaspora, timed in the immediate aftermath of the Brotherhood's abortive June 1866 raid into Canada — an operation intended to seize British territory as a bargaining chip for Irish independence. The bonds promised repayment by a future Irish republic, a government that did not exist and showed no imminent prospect of existing.

Continental Bank Note Company, a legitimate and respected commercial printer, produced the series with the same engraved quality they applied to genuine securities. The embossed seal was deliberate — it gave the instrument the tactile authority of official paper at a moment when the Brotherhood badly needed credibility after the Canadian disaster.