19th century intaglio checks

On the lower right is Continental. To the left of that is John F or E or P Morian or Morlan & Co, Louisville

 

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Super nice thanks for sharing

 

Found a couple nice checks at the ANA Denver show last week. Also some very interesting promissory notes, which look a lot like checks but were more like short term loans. One in particular intrigued me -- it was issued in Bangor on Feb. 19, 1848. But the notation on the left side says: "First day June / Backersville (?) / California." Presumably this is when and where the note would be paid off. There is no Backersville that I could find by Googling and it's not Bakersfield or Vacaville, which didn't yet exist. The date is really interesting. Gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill in January of 1848, but that news didn't hit the papers until March. Did the loan recipient, Francis D. Philbrook, get wind of it? Was he already in California or did he decide to go there from Bangor? It's a great mystery and I welcome other guesses! The back is blank, so no clues there.

 

Here are a few other finds...

 

There is a little bit of information on Philbrook on ancestry.com. He was born in 1815. He was married and had several children. At some point he went to CA without his family and died there without any money in 1852.

 

So to put the whole story together, from information provided by lettow and elsewhere:

Like many other farmers back East, Francis Philbrook caught gold fever after hearing about the discovery at Sutter's Mill in California in 1848. He and some 50 other Maine men pooled their money and bought shares in the ship Cantero. Most of them were passengers when the ship left in late 1849 to sail around the Horn, arriving in California in April 1850. Philbrook first tried his luck around the gold camp of Bakersville and must have sent word home of his whereabouts, which was noted (albeit misspelled) on the promissory note. (Bakersville was eventually forced to change it's name to Watersford, to avoid confusion with mail going to Bakersfield, further south.)

Apparently Philbrook gave up on mining after a year or so without any luck and resettled about 170 miles north in Butte County, where he borrowed money and tried to start a ranch. And that's where his luck ran out. He died there in 1852, leaving behind a wife and six children back in Maine. There's no indication on the note that the $13.50 Philbrook owed to David M. was ever paid.

That's a lot of history to mine from a little piece of paper and well worth the $8 I spent on it!

 

what's a good way to storage big checks

 

If your checks are no taller than about 4 inches, I've found that the clear two-pocket sleeves made by BCW work quite well. And they fit in 3-ring binders, so no expensive proprietary album required.

 

I guess this topic might need a little bump. I've picked up a few new items in the last couple years. Are there any members out there that like this kind of material?

 

Yep. Not an intaglio but still this is a nice one nonetheless.

 

Nice one! I like that it's a Carson City issue.

 

Hey, I recognize that vignette! If you want to see the original engraving, it's on a souvenir card :

 

Yep; picked mine up at the show there in Tucson

 

Just for fun, another Native American vignette from the same bank; besides it's also a "radar" number.

 

And this particular one I've never attributed it as intaglio but sure has an interesting print history as it was printed by the Continental Bank Note Company. For further research may I recommend a journey through the provided link. Good stuff

https://postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibit...-1893/continental-bank-note-company-1873-1878

 

This one falls just outside the 19th century -- a 1903 paymasters check from the War Department. I've been looking for one of these Stanton portraits on a check for a while, so I was glad to add this to my collection.

 

The payee is Colonel Clarence A Stedman. He was a West Point graduate. He commanded a squadron of the 9th Cavalry at San Juan Hill. At the time this check was written, he was commander of the 5th Cavalry Regiment at Ft. Logan, CO.

You can find his memorial entry in the USMA Annual Report in Google Books.

 

Time to give this thread it's annual bump. I'm surprised no one else seems interested in these. Bank checks are plentiful and affordable. They often share vignettes with currency, especially obsolete banknotes. I've seen both of the vignettes on this Wilmington check used elsewhere.