Featured Banknote building blocks

I finally acquired an item that I've been in search of for about a decade! And this helps tie together some of the elements posted above. A little explanation...

A bank note company, after talking with client who was looking for a custom stock certificate or bond, would have a paste-up artist piece together a mock-up design from sections of borders, corner elements, vignettes and text. This way the client could review the design before starting the expensive process of creating an engraved steel printing plate.

Years ago, I picked up one of these pasted-up designs on the cheap, before I really understood what it was. It was created in the mid-1960's for the Massachusetts Investors Growth Stock Fund, one of the first mutual funds in the U.S. These paste-ups are quite scarce and were never intended to end up in public hands. I believe most were probably destroyed once the stock or bond was finalized.



I've been on the lookout for an actual stock certificate from the company since then and last week one finally surfaced on eBay in the form of a specimen. It's interesting to see the subtle differences between the paste-up and the specimen certificate. The paste-up shows the par value of $1 per share and is incorporated in Massachusetts. The specimen is 33-1/3¢ per share and is incorporated in Delaware. So there were some corporate changes made during this time.



But the biggest puzzler is the bank note printer. The paste-up shows an imprint of American Bank Note Co., while specimen was printed by a small competitor, E.A. Wright Bank Note. So did the client take the paste-up somewhere else to have it done more cheaply? Or did the client bring a specimen to ABNCo and ask them to match the design? An interesting mystery that will require some further research.

 

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Greg, Picked up a couple ABNC proofs recently. Not sure if they were used for stocks or banknotes. Thought I would share them here and see what you think.

 

Hi Darryl - 20 is an odd denomination for a bond or stock, so I'm going to guess this plate was intended for use on currency. It looks newer than the time period for obsolete notes, so the most likely use would be on a foreign banknote. I'll keep an eye out. Those are nice color varieties -- I'm always partial to orange!

 

You might be able to date that Bloomington bank note to sometime around 1857-1861 as that is, I think, President James Buchanan. More likely 1857 or 1858 before the populace realized that his presidency was one of the more feckless ones that no bank wanted to be associated with.