Please help ID this 1833 $5 Bank of America Demand Note

I recently picked up this 1833 $5 Bank of America Demand Note. The note is approximately 7" x 3", printed on one side only, and is tissue paper thin.



I could not find any information about this note online whatsoever. Any info regarding the history or approximate value would be greatly appreciated!

 

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I could not find this note listed in the Freidbergs Paper Money of the United States book. I would hazard a guess that it could be worth a bit of change since the story of Jackson and the Bank of America is very historical, and there would be quite a few collectors interested in acquiring that piece of history, sorry not to be able to offer more help.

 

The current banking behemoth Bank of America wasn't founded until 1904, as the Bank of Italy, and didn't adopt the B of A name until 1928.

The only New York "Bank of America" I've found any record of was chartered in 1853, so if the note is genuine there must have been a still earlier bank of that name, which left virtually no footprint in the sands of time.

BTW back when dinosaurs walked the earth and I was a young schoolboy, they taught us that President Jackson battled with the "Bank of the United States", not "Bank of America".

 

Next to the left hand image which appears to be a viaduct, is very tiny printing which says "Printed by C.P. Harrison N.Y.". I did find some internet references for C.P. Harrison who was an engraver in New York who also printed some early reproductions of the Declaration of Independence around 1819.

There is also a very small eagle at the bottom center with the words "Fairman, Draper, Underwood & Co". I learned that Robert Scot formed a bank note engraving business in 1795 which became Murray, Draper, Fairman & Co. in 1810 and then Fairman, Draper, Underwood & Co. in 1823.

 

Nice pick up

 

Very cool note and fine research as well! Congrats on a great note!

 

this is an interesting piece! I wouldbe interested in learning if its history!

 

Nice find !

 

This may just confuse the issue, but there was another Bank of America in Rhode Island around that time. I suspect there may have been more. Here's a R.I. note that was reprinted on a souvenir card in 1990.

Fyi, there's a long-standing souvenir card thread running at
http://www.cointalk.com/t94663-23/

 

According to Haxby, the Bank of America in New York operated from 1812-1928. There are no genuine surviving examples known of the $5 demand note design you posted, however several different similar designs of counterfeit notes are known.