Broken Bank Notes Message Board

Last night the Stacks auction closed on the documents about banks. I placed a bid on three of the documents and was high bidder on two. Here are the two I picked up last night:

New York, Gaines. Farmers Bank of Orleans.

Letter, May 5, 1842, to the state comptroller in Albany. President S. Bates inquires as to why the state is advertising for sale certain Indiana state bonds held as security for currency of the Farmers Bank of Orleans. The bank had suspended redemption of its notes and had problems. The president mentions the stockholders are making efforts to redeem paper money and expect to take in about $40,000 worth


New York, South Middletown. Bank of South Middletown

November 1, 1844. Hand written statement of resources and liabilities, totaling $162,128.10 on each side, noting that the bank had $61,371 worth of notes in circulation, of which $234 were presently held in the bank. Signed by both the cashier and the president. Statements such as this are extremely rare. A prize for the New York specialist.


- Greg

These kind of documents sometimes come up on ebay. The earlier ones (pre ~1850) tend to be written on "stampless" covers. That is, on letters that were folded into an envelope shape and mailed. This was mainly before postage stamps were issued. If you are looking for this type of material, do an ebay search in the "stamps" section.

Here is an example:
http://cgi.ebay.com/1840-Steamboat-stam ... dZViewItem

Another:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Stampless-NY-Lockpo ... dZViewItem

These are usually quite inexpensive and if you are lucky they might have significant information on banks. Many times they only show the outside of the cover such that you have to ask for a scan of the inside.

Here is one that is expensive:

http://cgi.ebay.com/1829-folded-cover-M ... dZViewItem

I don't know why this one is so expensive. I think that he probably does not know the real value. So you have to be careful, but many times you can pick up some real bargains for around $10-20.

Bernie

P.S. So are you getting into NY?

After submitting the above, I noticed that your two items probably were stampless covers?

Bernie

No, I'm not getting into New York. These documents just intrigued me because of the nature of the content. Most of the documents in the Stack's sale had an opening bid of $15 - $30 and received no bids. I didn't bid on them because I don't have a driving interest in NY banks... just an interest in the banking practices of the day in general. Besides, the president of the South Middletown bank was Joseph Davis... might be a distant relative.

Ast to whether these are stampless covers, I don't know. I'll post better scans once I receive them.

- Greg

As promised, here are the links to the higher resolution scans of the letters I bough from Stacks. And yes, they both turned out to be stampless covers. Enjoy.

Bank statement from Middletown Bank

Cover of bank statement from Middletown Bank

Letter from Gaines, Page 1

Letter from Gaines, Page 2

Letter from Gaines, Cover