Nutmeg Nationals

I only began collecting –in any fashion– just four or so years ago. Although I’ve always had an “older than my age would suggest” interest in history and its artifacts, it didn’t occur to me that I should be a collector of things. You see, I had never been keen enough on any particular item or industry enough to justify to myself that I ought to invest time and money into acquiring pieces.

I’m actually surprised that I hadn’t. My father and grandfather were considerable “collectors” of sorts. Well, they were packrats. Coming from a farming family in New England the family has always had access to antique furniture, American Indian artifacts, and ephemera of all shapes and sizes. Much of it junk, but junk with some kind of story behind it. Old things were always put aside because, well, you just don’t see those every day.

My journey into collection National Bank Notes, strangely enough, began with my mother which gave way to general bank note collecting because of my father. My mother was a local bank teller in the 1980s. By luck of time, it was a great opportunity to see the entire gamut of coins and US paper money. The legal tender and silver certificate eras were only about a decade out of use. Customers were still regularly bringing a wide range of notes. From the examples she was drawn to, she would “buy” them from the drawer to be put aside for her own personal interest.. not as a sophisticated collection, but more of a “this is kind of neat”.

One of said notes would inevitably become the genesis of my numismatic adventure.

On a spring afternoon she had mentioned that she had kept some notes aside which she found interesting, and being the curious type I was, I asked to see her scaled-down hoard. At this point there were plenty there which I hadn’t ever seen before. A $1 Hawaii overprint silver certificate, $1 funny back, some red seal $2s & $5s… and also a small size National. She allowed me to choose three notes to have for myself. This in itself is a generous offer. Even more generous that I wasn’t asked to buy them.

I chose the Hawaii, a funny back, and.. the National.

It was some time before I had even taken an effort to find out what exactly this note was about, and to this day I can’t recall where I tried or what I did. But I did find out it was a National Bank Note. I was able to find a group on social media relating to Nationals and messaged one of the admins. Thankfully, he was willing to offer a bit of info, albeit scant, it was enough to light the fire.

It turned out to be a Type 2 $20 First National Bank of Galeton, PA (CH 7280). Yikes! What I thought was just a cool note turned out to be quite a discovery. As of that time, there were zero Type 2 notes known left to exist on this bank (even now, there is just a single T2 $10 serial number 1). And although I have no tie to Galeton or Pennsylvania, it’s a trophy.

From there I began to learn about the aspects of local bank presidents and cashiers, the existence of large sizes and all the varieties that go along with it. I became aware of the Census (both Track and Price and the NBNC) and what makes a note rare or not. well, it was off to the races, and this site will be the outworking of that discovery. Enjoy