Ever heard of a bicentennial $1 bill (not coin) with city stamp/seal?

Question

My father recently found a bicentennial $1 bill with a Kennebunk, ME stamp/seal on it. It was a gift and I have never heard of such a thing. He tells me that it comes with a certificate which states that only 7 cities in the U.S. had these bills. Any info would be appreciated

Answer 1

What you may have is a National Bank Note. Difficult to tell without a picture, but here's the story on these:

They were issued from 1863 thru 1929. Some 14,000 banks were chartered by the US government to issue paper money their own paper money. The federal government printed the notes, which were all of similar design. Each bank's notes were stamped with the name of the bank, the city, and the charter number given to the bank by the government.

The stock market crash in 1929 (the beginning of The Great Depression) wiped out quite a few of these banks, so naturally, people lost confidence in National Bank Notes. That was the end of that series of paper money.

Looking around the net I found an example of such a note:

http://www.ronscurrency.com/notes/small/...

It's a $10 bil from the Merchants National Bank of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Charter number is 2511. It was issued in the 1920s.

More on old paper money collecting here:

http://www.valuable-coin-stories.com/old...