I love being able to see some of the older US currency. It was so much more interesting back then! When did our government decide that plain and boring was better?
Actually the trend to plain and boring began here:
(http://www.geocities.com/scottishmoney/banknotes/usa/legal201869tn.jpg)
Nice colourful note referred to as the Rainbow issue
But by the 1878-1880 series look what happened:
(http://www.geocities.com/scottishmoney/banknotes/usa/legaltender201880a.jpg)
Headed down the road to BORING, not a lot of colour like on the 1869 issue.
I haven't yet paged the Bellefontaine Ohio note, and some of the other Grand Rapids notes yet:
(http://www.geocities.com/scottishmoney/banknotes/usa/nationalohio201875a.jpg)
The president of this bank, William Lawrence is the bottom right signature here. He was also then a US Congressman representing Logan County, Ohio, was also instrumental in the creation of the American Red Cross with Clara Barton, and the US being a signatory to the Geneva Convention of 1882, governing treatment of prisoners of war etc. This note is a discovery note, it never having been reported in a collection prior to this note, there are only three other notes known on this bank, one $1, and two $10's from this series. Curiously this Bellefontaine National Bank was a highly respected institution that lasted in name for 106 years until bought out by Huntington Bank in 1977.