1859 Clinton Bank 5 Dollar Connecticut Obsolete Note - Connecticut Obsolete Currency - 1859 Clinton CT Five Dollars Obsolete Note

This listing is for the photographed 1859 Clinton Bank Connecticut 5 Dollars Obsolete Banknote. The date on this note includes a printed year and a handwritten month and day; dated March 4th, 1859. The obverse of this note features a portrait of George Washington on the left end, a laborer seated with tools and a train and factory behind him at the center, and a woman harvesting wheat featured on the right end. Fine (F) grade/condition, visible folds and signs of circulation, with a torn upper right corner and tape residue, as pictured. Excellent note that that has an interesting history!

Obsolete bank notes are also called "broken bank notes." In the days prior to the Federal Reserve, any bank could produce currency for use by the clients and members of the community. Unfortunately, not many safeguards were taken to ensure that banks stood behind the currency they were producing and circulating. Banks, more often than not, failed and their currency was rendered worthless. As a result, most bank notes of the period did not trade at their full retail value. Oftentimes notes were worth 50 cents on the dollar because the public expected the banks to fail.

The Clinton Bank was organized in 1855, becoming the sole bank in the town of Clinton, Connecticut at the time. Alfred Hull was the first cashier of the bank, working there until his death in 1877, seeing the bank through its transition to a National Bank in 1865. The bank operated under a state charter until receiving a national charter under the National Bank Act of 1865, becoming the Clinton National Bank. The bank survived through the National Banknote era, merging into the Connecticut Bank & Trust in Hartford, CT on May 15th, 1974. 

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1859 Clinton Bank 5 Dollar Connecticut Obsolete Note - Connecticut Obsolete Currency - 1859 Clinton CT Five Dollars Obsolete Note