Hi guys, Has anyone come across a definitive list of all the banknotes printed by ABNC in its history? I have been looking but the internet (curiously) has turned up nothing. Any books on the subject? My local library is quite "rural" (read: hillbilly) so I don't have any real resources in print. If there isn't a list, do you think compiling a list would be useful to hobbyists? I could get the primary notes compiled from the Standard Catalog. Some of the lesser-known notes and stock certificates might be tough to get info on.
I don't think compiling a list would be too useful for stock certificates. If you really wanted that info, you could probably ask ABN to find it for you (likely for a nominal research fee).
Since ABNC sold its archives and is out of business you would be hard pressed to find someone to ask. Look for copies of the auction catalogs and the stock of specimen notes for sale by Champion Coin Company. That would be a start.
I'd love to see such a list, but it would be massive. If you include predecessor companies like Rawdon, Wright & Hatch which printed a great many obsolete bank notes, then it gets even bigger. I would estimate banknotes alone total 80-100,000 types. Haxby's Standard Catalog of Obsolete Bank Notes comes in four big volumes. Don't even try to include stocks and bonds. Terry Cox has compiled the most comprehensive catalog of railroad securities (*just* railroads) that is approaching 20,000 varieties of certificates. The majority of these were by ABNC. When you consider how many other industries existed the number of varieties expands to hundreds of thousands. Remember, this covers 150+ years of printing. As lettow mentioned, the American Bank Note Co archives were sold off, beginning in the 1990s. Cox has also compiled a list of auction catalogs that contained this material: http://www.coxrail.com/abn-archives.asp. Archives International continues to roll out new material, though the flow has dropped off in the past few years. I've often wondered if it might be possible to create a visual database of vignettes and portraits produced by ABN, which were used on banknotes and other securities. But even that would be a monumental task.
I don't know if this is obvious to everyone, but in case it's not... One can search the digital version of SCWPM for the string "ABNC" and similarly the Banknote Book for "American Bank Note Company" and collect a vast number of entries.
