Nutmeg Nationals

The First National Bank of Galeton, in Galeton, Pennsylvania was the note which drew me into the world of Nationals. I knew it was unique, in so far as I had never seen a note like it before. Of course I was familiar with the small portrait notes, but never anything with the name of a bank on it. I knew I had some research to do.

I stumbled across a social media group dedicated to Nationals and contacted one of the administrators. He was reluctant to provide information as Nationals collectors can be quite tight-lipped about information since access to it requires paid subscriptions to census services. I was, however, able to extract from him that since there were no other Type-2 notes on this bank as of yet, it would be a fantastic discovery for the bank.

Although I put off subscribing to the census for far too long, I inevitably realized I needed access if I planned to be a serious collector of Nationals.

While there were 14 large size notes reported up to that point, and add to that 12 more small, the notes to be had were scarce, but not necessarily rare. This note would be different.

Small sized Nationals come in two types, 1 & 2. Of the 12,095 small size notes printed for the First National Bank of Galeton, a mere 1,955 were type 2 and of those, just 329 were $20s.

This note was the lone surviving type-2. Since the discovery of my note, there has subsequently been reported a serial number 1 type-2 $10.