Posted 10/12/2013 7:22 pm
They are 10c Fifth Issue Fractional notes issued from July 1874 to February 15th 1876. The portrait is the then recently deceased William Meredith, Secretary of the Treasury from 1849-1850. There were 199,899,000 issued. There are 3 varieties. 1 with a green seal and 2 (like yours) with red seals. The difference between the two red seals is the length of the key in the seal. I can't tell from the pictures whether you have the long or short key variety but the values are the same in any case. Your notes are in pretty rough shape and on a good day only worth a few dollars. The guide for fractional currency is Kravitz book titled "A Collectors Guide to Postage and Fractional Currency" and is the source for this info.
