These were all part of an estate collection I recently purchased which belonged to a bank president from Lafayette who died 45 years ago. I know a bit about traditional US currency notes but these are out of my realm. Any input on what they are and their value would be greatly appreciated. Also, the “railroad” notes are unsigned.
Nice pick-ups. I think the unsigned notes were printers proofs, but I could be wrong. I hope more knowledgeable members can chime in.
Unsigned and/or no serial number notes are referred to as 'Remainders'. A remainder banknote is a banknote that has been prepared for issue, but not issued for one reason or another, such as the failure of the banknote issuer, or the merging of one banknote issuer into another. The others are National Currency notes. I don't know what that last note is, can't make it out, but my call is: it's worth a bit. Nice collection. Thanks for posting.
Cool collection! I am a little suspicious of the first two. The unsigned obsolete notes would be called remainders. The fact that the color is the same for the whole printing, makes me a little suspicious of them. A lot of reproductions have no change in color like that. Compare to the $5 Bank of the State of Indiana below, which has a red overprint, not black again, and brown signatures, again a different color. But the images are just not good enough to tell, and I know very little about Indiana notes. I think the rest are genuine, and a very nice collection! Again some of the images are not that great, and with the obsoletes especially it is harder to evaluate them.
Here’s a better photo of one of the remainders that I happen to have on hand. There are actually 5 or 6 of them stacked in the single sleeve.
That looks much better, and genuine in my eyes. Now I see the elaborate design of the 'ONE'.(I know very little about Indiana specifically, so I am not familiar with this note, or any valuations.)
Super nice City National Bank of Lafayette $5 - I don't collect Indiana but that's a uncommon and very nice note. The $10 American National Bank of Lafayette is pretty rare (6 -10 known) while the 5476 Boswell $5 is very rare - my old reference indicates only 3 -5 known in small size - don't spend it! The $1 note above is quite tricky. It appears to be an obligation of the "State of Indiana " but these notes were actually issued by "Ohio, Indiana and Illinois Railroad" as it says in small letters. It's not uncommon as an issued note; I don't know if there are remainders. I am pretty suspicious of your $1 note; to me it seems to be a reproduction; look at the smoke from the locomotive - it doesn't seem right.
That's quite a set! My grandparents used to live in a town of 500 people, and their bank had a frame filled with all their national banknotes from over the years.
UPDATE… I sent photos of the collection to Stacks and Bowers for an appraisal and they expressed interest in purchasing them all. After a little negotiation, we settled on what I considered a fair price. Sure, they’ll make money on them, but I was happy to unload them all at once rather than rolling the dice on eBay with such a niche collection. In the end, I turned a nice profit as well and learned a bit about National bank notes and remainders.