The Bank Note Issues

Part IV
by Michael Mills

Further Values

The interesting or perplexing thing about the Bank Notes is that each value has it's own depth of variety and challenge, making a detailed look at each beyond the scope of this article. In fact, it would be a disservice to try and compress all of the detail and nuance of these great issues into so small a space.

It is, however, a better idea to simply mention the other values in basic terms to help explain the nature of depth and attraction collectors have for the Bank Notes.

Other Values

The portraits for the other values were standard American pictorial hagiography. Former presidents appeared on the two-cent (Andrew Jackson, then Washington), three-cent (George Washington, then Jackson) --- later in '83 Jackson was revalued to four-cents --- five-cent (Zachary Taylor, later James Garfield), six-cent (Abraham Lincoln), and ten-cent (Thomas Jefferson).

Some of the country's political titians were featured on some of the mid-values: seven-cent Stanton, twelve-cent Clay, fifteen-cent Webster, and thirty-cent Hamilton. And illustrious war heroes added two more profiles to the set: the twenty-four cent General Scott of the Mexican War and the War of 1812's Commodore Perry.

The proper identification of a National or Continental fifteen- thirty- or ninety-cent stamp is liable to engage serious Banknote experts in many rounds of debate. The minutae involved is astounding, and the underlying bases of assumptions used to arrive at the identification are apt to be challenged. Surfice it to say that this is a topic that could fill reams and reams of paper with opinion, comment, and dissent.

If the Banknotes are your cup of tea, I assume you've read this story with a jaundiced eye and conjured up conditional phrases for all the small facts I've mentioned about the issues, and if you've only become intrigued by these US issues, I hope that, should you be bitten by this bug, you remember that you started with Banknotes with your eyes wide open, though in a few years you'll swear they were shut.