Today has been a good day for me personally. Between finding a silver dime in the Coinstar reject slot and finding this on eBay, I'm much closer to completing my set of obsolete banknotes from Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
Thank you, I've had the good fortune to find some of the other issues put out by the same bank as well. https://www.cointalk.com/threads/re...t-murfreesboro-1-2-obsolete-banknotes.379468/
Interestingly enough, $5 notes from the 1857 emission have a printed reverse. Here's an example from my collection.
Curious how the state comptroller signed the note based on their deposit of bonds with the comptroller's office. Which begs the question, if the state comptroller's office secured the notes with deposited bonds, why did the notes survive unless the bank failed and the comptroller's office didn't actually back the currency issue.
Interestingly enough, in 1857, it would seem that issues were arising from the mismanagement of state bonds. Apparently, some of the securities were "misplaced" and could not be accounted for. The bank later failed in 1859, leaving its currency emissions unredeemable. https://www.dnj.com/story/news/2014...routinely-issued-three-dollar-bills/14513607/
Most of the bonds that were used to secure obsolete notes were bonds of southern states. Northern banks also used southern state bonds as collateral. The states did not have good credit and the bonds were often discounted in the market. But the backing requirement was based in the face value of the bonds notarket value.