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U.S. Bank Note History (1782-1935)
The purpose of this wiki website is to stimulate research and help organize historical information related to U.S. bank notes that were issued during the National Bank Note Era (1863-1935) and Obsolete Bank Note Era (1782-1866).
This wiki is part of the Bank Note History Project sponsored by the Society of Paper Money Collectors as part of its educational mission to promote the study and appreciation of paper money and related financial history.
For the latest news and updates for this project, see What's New.
Bank Note History Wiki
This Bank Note History Wiki is a crowd-sourced, searchable content website (very similar to Wikipedia) for creating and organizing historical information on the National & Obsolete Banks and Bankers from 1782-1935. This is a Public/Open access Wiki, so no user login is required to View the information. But only Logged-In Users (with a confirmed email address) are allowed to Add new pages or Edit existing wiki pages. See the 'Contributing Content' section below for information on how to setup a login account, if you are interested in helping us with content for this wiki.
This wiki is specifically focused on two of the primary historical aspects of these 'Hometown' bank notes: The Banks that issued them, and the Bankers who signed them. Featured Bank Notes illustrate this by providing a link to the issuing Bank's History page, as well as links to the Bio pages for the signing Bank Officers. In addition, an Index page has been setup for other bank note History related articles that don't fit into the Bank History or Banker Bio topics. A Bank Note History home page has also been set up for each State, focusing on the Banks, Bankers and Banking History of that State.
To find what you're looking for on this wiki, you can use the navigation links on the sidebar, or the search box in the upper right hand corner.
If you are searching for a specific National Bank, or all of the National Banks for a town, you can use the National Bank Lookup website.
National Bank Lookup website
This public search website provides a simple interface to lookup National Banks by Charter# or Town. Bank & Banker data are displayed on a Bank Info page available for all 14,348 National Banks that were charted from 1863 until 1935 when National Bank Notes were no longer issued. If a detailed Bank History wiki page is also available for a bank, a link is provided on the Bank Info page along with other relevant links and information.
For an overview of this website see National Bank Lookup website Overview
State and County home pages
- State Bank Note History home pages have been set up for all 50 States and the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Each home page focuses on that State's National/Obsolete Banks, Bankers and Banking History. They also highlight new wiki content for the State, along with National Bank Stats, Lists & Graphs, Famous Banks & Bankers, and helpful Research Resources for the State.
- County Bank Note History home pages can also be set up to provide information on the Banks, Bankers and Bank Notes for that county during the National Bank Note Era (1863-1935), and also the Obsolete Bank Note Era (1782-1866) (if applicable for that county). County home pages are listed on their State home page for easy access. Your local County Historical Society/Museum may be interested in adding a link on their website to their County's Bank Note History home page in this wiki.
State Bank Note History Home pages
Bank Histories
The Index for the Bank Histories in this wiki is organized by State, then alphabetically by Town, then by Bank Open Date.
Banker Biographies
The Index for the Banker Biographies in this wiki is organized alphabetically by Last Name.
Featured Bank Notes
A Featured Bank Note will be shown on the Main Page, as well as each State's Bank Note History Home page, to highlight the bank note, with links to the Bank History, and Banker Bios for the note signers. This clearly illustrates the type of historical information we have available on this wiki. The featured bank notes will be changed periodically, to highlight new content on the wiki. To be eligible as a featured banknote, the wiki pages for the associated Bank History and Banker Bios must be available.
National Bank Stats & Lists - By State
This handy reference page has a table including one row for each of the 50 States and the District of Columbia. Each row contains useful information for that state and bank stats with links to corresponding bank lists (pdf).
National Bank Stats and Lists - By State
Other Bank Note History Articles
An Index page has been setup for other Bank Note History related articles that don't fit into the Bank History or Banker Bio topics. This index will be organized by State, where applicable.
Other Bank Note History Articles
How You Can Help with this Project
If you would like to help us with the Bank Note History Project, any assistance would be greatly appreciated!
See the How You Can Help page for further information.
Contributing Content to this Wiki
- This is an Open/Public access Wiki. No user login is required to View information.
- Only Users with an account setup on this wiki website (and a confirmed email address) can Add new pages or Edit existing pages.
- To have a login account set up for you, send an email to the Project Administrator at BankNoteHistory@gmail.com with a subject of 'New Wiki Account', including your full name and email address. When your account is set up, you will receive an email allowing you to change/set your login password. (Be sure to watch your spam folder, in case that email gets routed there).
- When you set your login password, you will also need to confirm your email address by checking the 'confirm email address' checkbox down by your email address. When you receive that confirmation email, respond as requested, and your email address will be confirmed. You will then be able to Edit new and existing pages in this wiki.
- For detailed instructions on how to Edit a wiki page, and easily Add new Bank History or Banker Bio pages, see the Help page.
- This Wiki is based on MediaWiki software, the same software that runs Wikipedia. So it uses the same markup language.
- To report errors or problems with either the Bank Note History Wiki or Banks & Bankers Database, please email BankNoteHistory@gmail.com.
Content Licensing and Copyright Legalese
- The contents of this wiki is licensed to the public under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License (same as Wikipedia). This license grants free access to our content, which can be copied, modified, and redistributed if and only if the copied version is made available on the same terms to others and acknowledgment of the authors of the Wiki article used is included (a link back to the article is generally thought to satisfy the attribution requirement). Copied Wiki content will therefore remain free under an appropriate license and can continue to be used by anyone subject to certain restrictions, most of which aim to ensure that freedom.
- You can go to Wikipedia: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License for further information.
- Never use materials that infringe the copyrights of others. This could create legal liabilities.
- If in doubt, write the content yourself, which can be included in the Wiki without trouble.
- Note that copyright law governs the creative expression of ideas, not the ideas or information themselves. Therefore, it is legal to read an encyclopedia article or other work, reformulate the concepts in your own words, and submit it to the Wiki, so long as you do not follow the source too closely. Also be sure to cite the original source as a reference.
- You can go to Wikipedia's Copyright FAQ for further information.