Sateruday, April 27, 2002 - Money - Uncommon currency - Wapak wampum "Collector has cash issued at Auglaize County banks, by Janie Southard - staff writer
Time was, folks made their money the old-fashioned way. They printed it!
Some Auglaize County banks were doing it in the late 1800s, when the federal government allowed them to print their own paper currency.
Bruce Maag, a professional numismatist, who keeps a shop in Delphos, owns a $10 bill issued by the First National Bank of Wapakoneta as well as another 10 from the Trow National Bank and a $5 bill from the Old National City Bank of Lima. "I had three notes from Wapakoneta but recently sold two of them", said Maag, adding that the notes are priced according to condition. He rates the remaining note as being in fine condition and is asking $100 for it. Currency in "fine" condition, according to Gene Hessler's "U.S. Paper Money" catalogue, fifth edition, has multiple folds, creases, smudges and minor tears, and the colors are beginning to fade.
Although there is no universally accepted standard for grading paper money, dealers and collectors tend to use at least the same labels to define condition. Top of the line is "uncirculated", meaning the money has not been placed into the market and is in the same condition as when it was issued. Next is "about uncirculated", indicating that minute signs of handlin are visible. From there grading leables graduate down through "extra fine", "very fine", "fine", "very good", "good", "fair" and "poor". Notes in poor condition are badly damaged with pieces missing or even torn and taped together.
Called national currency, notes like the one from Wapakoneta were first issued in 1863, when the federal government began granting charters to banks, companies and even individuals nationwide, enabling them to issue their own currency up to a total circulation nationally of $300 million. "The idea was of course that whoever got charters could back the paper currency", Maag said. In all, 14,348 charters were issued over a 72 year period ending in 1935.
With charter number 3157 issued in 1884, the First National Bank of Wapakoneta was the first bank in Auglaize County to print currency and, over the duration of the period, issued a total of $2.4 million in paper money. Other Wapakoneta banks receiving charters included the Peoples Bank (chartered in 1886 - issuing $1.5 million), and the Auglaize National Bank (chartered in 1911 - issuing $1.1 million). St. Marys had two chartered banks and New Bremen had one, as did Celina.
Ohio's 689 chartered banks had $36 million in circulation in 1929 and $34.4 million in 1934. So, where is it now? "Much of it simply wore out or was destroyed. What remains is with professional collectors, forgotten in attic trunks or hoarded by hometown collectors", Maag told the Wapakoneta Daily News during a recent interview at his Delphos shop, adding that there was no paper money issued by the federal government until after the Civil War.
Americans now say money is hard to get. Early colonists said the same thing and meant it literally. Foreign governments with holdings in North America felt that one way of keeping their colonists loyal to the crown was to withhold permission to issue their own currency. "Coins of the realm were all the colonists had, and not many of those", Maag said.
Bartering (the trading of goods and services), often was used for payment in the mid 1600s, until Masachusetts accepted corn as legal tender, followed by the Carolinas accepting tobacco as money. Wampum was legal tender in New York until late in the 1700s.
Pre-Revolutionary War currency was always issued to finance military activities. In 1690, the Massachusetts Bay Colony printed bills of credit to pay military expenses for soldiers sent to Canada to fight against the French colonists.From this we get the slang term "bills".
"For a while, after coins became scarce during the Civil War because people were hoarding them, the government issued fractional currency", said Maag, showing some of the paper from his collection. He also displayed some "horseblanket" bills, examples of early U.S. paper currency.
"You've probably seen in old photos the enormous wallets or pocketbooks men carried in early times. That was because the paper money was so big", Maag said, adding that the smaller size of paper currency was established in 1928. The old national currency, such as that issued in Wapakoneta, was in small and large bills. Consulting one of the reference books in his shop, Maag said large bills issued during the national bank note period in Ohio are rated as 6 on a 1-9 rarity scale, with 1 the most common.
One of the most rare of all United States paper money is the watermelon note. "Collectors now call it watermelon because the zeros are large and open and have a rippled ink coloration which looks like a watermelon", Maag said. "There aren't many around, so they're worth thousands and thousands of dollars".