Oh man and all I get is bills, the kind you have to pay and an occasional summons. Op! Nevermind!! Very nice baby bill, first one I've ever seen. :thumb:
Thanks guys! I heard about these a while ago and saw one come up for sale and jumped on it. It was a pretty good purchase, I love it!
Nice one North49guy... I recall reading an Article about these "Baby Bonds"..I'll have to ty to find it for you. No promises but I will look. I think it was in BNR several months ago...I have seen them in either Heritage of Lynn Knight auctions if I remember correctly!! Nice engraving and a great vignette. RickieB
nice note... Am i correct to assume with the coupons being numbered 7 through 11, that there were 11 original affixed to the bond?
Yes. These are quite common as a type but there are scarcer varieties. At least one is available on Ebay with a BIN under $10.00. I do not remember all of the details of the issue but I know they come with two different color serial numbers. Uncut sheets can also be found at a reasonable price if you look around long enough.
In the past the uncut sheets of these were fairly common, but I have to wonder that a lot of them subsequently were cut up and the individual notes sold off. I have to wonder that at some point the State of Louisiana did not honour these as there are so many of them extant, much like the South Carolina notes of 1872-3.
pushy pushy I dont know much about the baby bond issues, but i guess it makes sense having scarcer issues, and thus more expensive then others. Correct me if i am wrong, but baby bonds are not considered currency right? I mean weren't they used in commerce - or like the name suggests, they were just bonds?
A $5.00 bond is not exactly issued to raise capital. They were called bonds to get around the federal prohibition on states circulating paper money. The same is true of the South Carolina train tickets and other similar issues.
I think Mississippi was the last state that issued these "revenue bonds" in 1896, which would have effectively been the last of the state issued currency. Prior to that I believe Tennessee issued some $1's and $5s in the 1880s, and before that several southern states or entities such as railroads issued "dodge the law" type notes.
The Wisconsin Bank Scrip of 1933 was probably the last state issued currency. It had US Treasury approval and got around the law because it was issued through banks and represented a lien on assets of the bank rather than being issued as legal tender.
Perhaps the State of Kahlifornia with their Arnoldian IOU's might qualify? I have heard some people with low $ amount ones were keeping them as souvenirs. Also the City of Detroit came out with a lovely set of scrip during that time, I have seen images on that other place. That is one set I would like to have. I should look for the Baby bond if I can find a sheet of them, I would like to have those in a picture frame.
not to beat a dead horse.. but were the notes used as currency? was each coupon considered a note, and spent as such? And would that explain why some of the baby bonds are missing most if not all their coupons?? I have known of baby bonds for a long time, but obviously never knew how they functioned
Yes. They were used as currency. The reason they do not have all of their coupons is because the coupons had to be turned in to receive the semi-annual interest payments. Did the coupons circulate separately from the bond? It is possible but only if they did not have to be attached to receive payment. I have not seen enough of these to study them but if they all have coupons 7-11 remaining it would suggest that the bonds were called in after the payment of interest installment number 6.
