Hokiefan's Collection Of Arkansas Obsoletes, Scrip And National Bank Notes

Nice examples!

I picked up an attractive $10 State of Arkansas remainder on Great Collections tonight. It has a punch cancellation, but every example I've ever seen also has (including the Rothert plate note, which has a serial number only 92 higher than this note).

I picked up three interesting Arkansas obsolete notes on the Stack's Bowers auction today. The first is a $5 note issued by the Arkansas Post branch of the Bank of the State of Arkansas, dated January 3, 1839. Arkansas Post was established near the confluence of the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers as a trading post in the late 1600's by the French, and was the first European settlement along the Mississippi River. It served as the capital of Arkansas Territory from 1819 until 1821 when the capital was moved to Little Rock. During the Civil War, the town was heavily damaged by artillery when captured by Union forces. As railroads became dominant over river transportation, the town fell into decline and in the years after the war became a mostly rural area. The former site of Arkansas Post was made into a state park in 1929, and was designated a National Memorial and a National Historic Landmark in the 1960's.


The next one is a $10 note from Columbia, Arkansas, issued by the Treasurer of the County of Chicot and dated April 5, 1844. Columbia was a town on the Mississippi River in southeast Arkansas, across the river from Greenville, Mississippi. It was the Chicot County seat from 1833 until 1855. The town was burned by Union soldiers in 1864 in retaliation for attacks on U.S. Navy gunboats by Confederate artillery, and the remains of the town were eventually washed away by the Mississippi River.

I find it interesting that on the back there are written statements that the note was presented on April 20, 1848 and April 14, 1854 and "not paid for want of funds". Also, I noticed the plate note in Rothert appears to be s/n 940, and this one is 941.



Finally, a $100 note from The Real Estate Bank of the State of Arkansas, payable at the branch in Van Buren and dated January 1, 1840. Notice the engraved branch name of Columbia is neatly crossed out and Van Buren is written in, and it states it's payable one day after the issue date. Van Buren is in northwest Arkansas on the Oklahoma border, just across the Arkansas River from Fort Smith, and is about 300 miles from Columbia.

The Real Estate Bank was founded in 1836 and was liquidated with the assets transferred to the state in 1855. The main bank was opened in Little Rock in 1838, with branches opening in Columbia, Washington, Helena, and Van Buren in 1839. It had a very troubled history pretty much from the beginning, which I guess wasn't unusual for banks of that period.

This note is unlisted in Rothert, though he does list a $50 note which is identical to this one besides the denomination, including Columbia being crossed out and Van Buren handwritten in and the January 1, 1940 issue date.

Thank you, scopru! I thought the engraving and vignettes on the Columbia note and the Real Estate Bank note were particularly nice. The central vignette of the Real Estate Bank note has a lot going on - a train, a team of horses pulling a wagon, steam ships, and lots of bales of cotton!

Thank you very much, Hondo Boguss!

Thank you, jbuck!

Excellent note and nice acquisition, Hokie! It will make a great companion to your 1929 T2 $20 NBN from The Citizens National Bank of Hope.

The census has no idea of how many such notes are tucked away in ancestral family bibles, waiting to be appreciated.