Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Abraham Lincoln's 205th Birthday

I love the florid designs of older bank note engraving. In honor of Abraham Lincoln's 205th birthday, I submit this $5-bill from 1923.



from United States Currency, by Kenneth Bressett

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11 comments:

  1. Hello Mark, Happy Birthday to Abraham Lincoln! Quite an interesting design on that old note--I don't think I have ever seen a circular portrait and surround like that one! Recent banknote designs, while focusing on anti-counterfeiting technology, seem to have lost sight of the beauty, quality and interest that help to invest paper money with its value and trustworthiness.
    --Jim

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    1. Hi, Jim,

      You've hit upon something that I've felt for a long time. It's bothered me that our monetary portraits are now off-center! I think that unbalance has a subconscious effect on the bearers, who have been used to the symmetry of our currency. And I think that symmetry does convey feelings of value and trustworthiness.

      Beyond that, early American currency employed beautiful images, including cornucopia and great moments in history.

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  2. Dear Mark,
    I agree with you and Jim. We have lost the sense of beauty that something as functional and as necessary as a bank note can, and should, have.
    I like the attention to detail on this bank note: the way the '5' is embellished.
    I have a question though: Why are the words Silver Certificate on either side of the roundel? Does it mean $5 worth of silver?
    Kirk

    PS
    Happy Birthday dear Abraham,
    Happy Birthday to you!

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    1. Dear Kirk,

      The Silver Certificates were issued from 1878 to 1964 and could be redeemed for silver dollar coins. I well remember being able to go into banks as a boy and hand over a dollar bill for a silver dollar. Boy, oh boy, I wish I'd done that more often! It was also customary for my parents to gift me with a silver dollar on special occasions, like a birthday.

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    2. The things we would do if we could just pop back in time for a day or two...

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  3. That's a handsome one! I like the fanciful border. Interesting to have the five "silver" dollars. Thanks for sharing, Mark.

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    1. Hi, Loi,

      It's items like these that would make time traveling a lot of fun!

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  4. Dear Mark - a problem is the very short life of paper money today, so whatever the image on the note it soon deteriorates. Soon the UK will have plastic notes which will have a long life, but they will lose their aesthetic appeal. I for one will not welcome them.

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    1. Dear Rosemary,

      I think that paper money (speaking here of U.S. currency) holds up very well because it's made from a special formula that includes a "rag," cloth content. So much of what I collect has endured because of that same basic makeup, which was uniformly scrapped by the paper industry during World War I. I have a newspaper from the 1870s that folds and unfolds endlessly, while newspapers in my garage from a couple years back have turned brittle!

      I do hope you are spared from plastic money!

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  5. Very elegant, indeed! I was in the offices of Moody;s Investors Service the other day for a meeting, and spent a good part of the meeting admired two large engraved certificates, blow up to maybe two feet by three feet. One was for a preferred stock cerificate from 1929, and the other a common stock certificate from 2005. The earlier certificate was tour-de-force of marvelous engraving, done to perfection. The later one? Boring and pedestrian, and grindingly dull.

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    1. Dear Reggie,

      I have long been enamored of stock certificate engraving, and recently bought a beautiful book on that subject entitled, "The Art of the Market: Two Centuries of American Business As Seen Through Its Stock Certificates." The quality of the engraving, as you might imagine, follows a bell curve, with the early certificates charming but a little crude, and the later certificates uninspired. What is between — the latter part of the 19th century — is a delight. My favorite certificate features two battling cherubs, using silver coins as shields.

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