Kinda OT, but very cool!

SilverEagles92

It's a check dated 1894, from the Carson City, Nevada Bullion and Exchange Bank, drawn on the Anglo Californian Bank Limited, San Francisco, California, made payable to Newman & Levinson and signed by T. R. Hofer, May 10, 1894.



Can anyone answer to whether it's authentic or not?

savoyspecial

i'm no paper expert but is that perforation at the bottom?? when did perforated paper start showing up??

greg

Julio

Not a clue as if it is legit, but I like it.

Someone with some knowledge will probably chime in. jws

SilverEagles92

Here's a bit of a larger pic for some close-up viewing.

SUMORADA

google search........

This material, known as Perforated card-board at the time, first became available in the 1820's as plain sheets used for the creation of bookmarks and small mottoes and sayings, often taken from the Bible. By the 1870s the Victorian craze for this inexpensive and versatile craft material was at its peak. The invention of new printing processes made the pre-printing of mottoes and bookmarks on the perforated paper possible. These items were extremely popular and original examples, in good condition, can still be found today. The Victorian fad of embroidering mottoes on perforated paper died out around 1910 and was virtually lost as a needleart until recently being rediscovered.

Bear

It is cool. Thank you for posting it on the Forum.

GoldenEyeNumismatics

Yes, it's real. Paper stuff from the B & E Bank is pretty common

The B & E Bank was the biggest in Carson City from about 1890-1910. They actually had an office within the Carson City Mint, and were involved with their assaying operations from most of the 1890's. They were involved in a scandal in 1895 where reportedly 80,000 1893-CC silver dollars were ciphened out of the Mint building and wound up in the Nevada State Treasury Vault. The bullion for these coins had apparantly been bought at a steep discount my mint employees, not by the actual mint, and coined by the employees at night. The Bullion and Exchange Bank had reportedly been involved in transfering the coins out of the mint, presumably for a fee, which would have gone into the pockets of Mr. Hofer, who was one of the main figures of the bank.

"It was charged that silver bullion worth but 60 cents and ounce was taken from the Mexican Mill at Empire and brought to the Mint at night where it was coined into dollars... It was further charged that this [the dollars] went through the Bullion and Exchange Bank and from there into the state Treasury to be exchanged for gold."
---Goe, The Mint on Carson Street, p.199.

The coins would have been exchanged for gold so that the money would be less tracable. The men involved in this project would have been making some good money too, since they would be roughly doubling their money on every ounce of silver they purchased then coined.

Theodore Hofer started out as a messenger boy for the Carson City Mint. He later went on to be Superintendent. He was an officer for the Bullion and Exchange bank for the late 1880's and most of the 1890s, and his signature is on almost every check from the B & E bank from that period.

There's more I could touch upon but I'll stop there. Maybe some more tomorrow

GoldenEyeNumismatics

Here's some more stuff from the B & E

link

SilverEagles92

Awesome! Thanks for the info!