Help Finding Obsolete Bank Note Info

I am trying to find a bank note of any denomination from an obsolete bank. The name was First National Bank of Gallatin, TN. Not to be confused with First and People's Bank of Gallatin. The bank was started by my great great great (can't remember how many greats) grandfather. His signature would be on the notes from banking documents I found online. I bear the same name, so I would really like to find a bank note. I have spent hours online trying to find out if any notes are even in existence without any luck. I have also contacted a few dealers, but none of them had seen one or had much advice. Would anyone have any suggestions on who or where I could contact to find a note. I would at least like to find out if any are known to exist so I'm not on a wild goose chase for nothing. Any suggestions would be great!!

 

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Are you a member of S.P.M.C. they could help you find the information.

 

I'm not familiar with them, but I will check them out. Thanks

 

The First National Bank of Gallatin was formed under Charter# 1707 in Sumner County in Tennessee. Only Large sizes National Notes were issued for this bank. You will have a hard time finding them because they have a rarity rating of R9, which means only 0 - 2 are known to exist. There are only 10 notes outstanding from their original issue, a total of $315 not turned in. The missing 8 could be either destroyed or sitting in an attic somewhere in Tennessee. Unknown to the owner. If you ever find one, I hope you have some cash available. Values range from $6000 ($5 note) to $13,800 ($100 note) if they are in a very fine grade. Much more if the grade is higher. The reference I own is the National Currency Analysis with Values by Liddell and Litt. Published in 2004. Good Luck!

 

Awesome. Thanks salty. Bittersweet info. I'm glad I now know what I'm chasing but sad it's so rare (if a note exists at all). Hmm guess I should start checking grandparents attic. Maybe ill get really lucky and those notes were kept in the family!

 

Salty, does that book have a picture of any of the notes?

 

No it doesn't. With only a possible two notes known, they would have to contact the owner(s) to take a picture of that banks' note; if you could find out who owns them to begin with. With over 14,000 charters issued, I don't think you could find and photograph all of them in a book form in a life time. However all is not lost. There were only three charter periods for large size Nationals. If you go to a library and can find a guide book called "United States Paper Money", they show pictures of each charter series and in each denomination. Just substitute your bank, it's charter number and signatures in place of the one's shown. Then you have it. You can also go to a book store and buy this paperback for about $25. It's by Whitman Publishing, which I'm sure you can buy on their site as well. You would have to add shipping to the price then.

 

Based on Don C. Kelly's book...which is the basically Bible of Nationals, there are no known examples from this bank. That doesn't mean they don't exist, just one has never been reported.

This bank issued only one type of note. That is the 1865 $5 National Bank Note. It would have looked like this...just with the correct bank name, number and signatures.

 

Thank you guys for all the help. I guess my only hope is that one of the unaccounted for notes was passed down in my family and someone has it stored away not realizing what it is or how rare it is.

 

Actually Liddell and Litt says the same thing. R9 does include zero. That's why I was careful to say with only a possible two known. It was misleading to state "if you could find out who owns them to begin with" in order to photograph them". I was just trying to make a point about the difficulties of providing pictures.

 

I understand, and I know R9 does include 0. I'm just not exactly familiar with that reference so I'm not sure what it says exactly. The Kelly book actually lists how many are known for all banks. Kind of like track and price.

 

Salty, does the book you have say who signed the notes? Thanks!!

 

No, it doesn't John. There are signature lines for the current bank president and cashier to sign. They were signed as issued and those individuals could change at any moment. The other signatures which would be preprinted on the note would be the Register of the Treasury and the Treasurer of the United States. Those names would be based on the date of printing of the actual notes. That would be a matter of historical record. In your case, there could be 4 possible combinations. The one shown in this thread is Colby and Spinner. It is considered as the Original Series. It lacks the BEP seal which is found between signatures on the latter 1875 First Charter Period issues.

 

Awesome thank you for the info. I will do a little more investigating to see if I can find the records that show who all signed and when.

 

FYI, John. For the preprinted signatures, depending on the printing date, they could be: Chittenden and Spinner, Colby and Spinner, Jefferies and Spinner or Allison and Spinner. They will all have that red seal with the rays printed on it.

 

Well I found this (see below) in an OCC report from 1871.

 

I appreciate the help. I know my chances of locating a note is slim unless one of my family members has one that was passed down. It's really just interesting for the family history.

 

Just to get a photocopy of one would suffice, even if it's from someone's private collection. There were close to 9000 outstanding according to this ledger. (Provided only the $5 National was in circulation). Did your family have two brothers involved at the bank? The president and cashier have the same name except for the middle and additional initial.

 

J.R.A was J.M. 's father. Both of them died in 1879, and J.R.A.'s other son, W. R. Tomkins (a surgeon at the time), quit his practice to take over the bank. J.R.A. Tomkins would be my great great great grandfather. I thought there were only 10 notes unaccounted for?

 

According to the Kelly book, $315 was still out as of 1910. That would mean 63 notes had not been turned in by 1910 based on my understanding.