Finished my prefixed serial number NBN set

STLNATS

I know this has been presented before, but I just finished my 11 note 1902 Series NBN set with a purchase from the recent Heritage auction. This set is covered extensively in Chapter 26 of Huntoon's large size NBN book as well so I will just get on with the pix:

charter 733 NYC This is the only bank that issued prefixed dated backs and I consider it the key to the set. And, the fortunate purchase of this note earlier this year was enough to motivate me to see how far I could get remainder of the set.

charter 29 NY This bank not only did the A prefix for $5, $10 and $20 but issued so many notes that it is the only bank that issued B prefixes on its $5s as well. It's also interesting to note the different size of the engraved signatures which is something I'd not noticed before.

charter 252 Pittsburgh

Charter 891 NYC

charter 4178 St Louis obviously a favorite bank of mine

charter 6301 Pittsburgh

A couple of quick observations:

1. All of the 1902 PB banks took advantage of having bank officer sigs engraved on the plates by the BEP at some point except 4178. The small additional charge to have sigs engraved was probably more than offset by the additional costs to have sigs applied locally, making it economical to do this. I don't have an explanation why 4178 did not and, in fact, the only bank in STL to use engraved sigs was 5172 (State National) and only in the late late 1920s. Also I find the different sizes of the engraved sigs on bank 29 quite interesting and is something that I'd not noticed before posting this set.

2. 733 had a gigantic circulation, hence the use of the prefix on dated back 1902 series notes. According to Huntoon the A1 sheet was printed in Sept 1913. The next bank to exceed 1,000,000 sheets bank 29's $5 in early 1920. Interestingly 733 seems to have reduced/eliminated its circulation altogether during or just after WWI. Had the bank continued issuing notes at a similar rate, it would have easily blown into the B prefix on its $5s and maybe even into C. I've done a bit of research and am aware of the reasons that some banks reduced their circulation in general but wondered if anyone knows why 733 SPECIFICALLY took this action. Thanks!

mainejoe

Nice set, and neat information as well. Now me being a geek, and not well informed on Nationals, I have to ask. Why do some have the region prefix with the charter number and others don't? Also, why do some have a different number lower left than upper right? Is some of this the separation of date backs and non? Just curious

STLNATS

Thanks.

The lack of regional letters and substitution of a bank serial for the treasury serial at the upper left is well documented and represent changes to all nationals printed at a given time. Due to changes in sorting procedures, the Comptroller had the BEP discontinue the use of regional letters in August 1924 while treasury serials (at the upper right) were discontinued in August 1925. So, a national printed before August 1924 will have both the regional letter and differing serials. One printed after August 1925 will have matching bank serial numbers. One printed between those dates will have no letter but have differing serials. There are a handful of anomalies which Huntoon documented in his large size book,

Note that this all refers to when notes were _printed _but not necessarily issued to a bank. A bank with a small circulation or which didn't regularly use certain denominations could well receive notes that were still in stock at the Comptrollers which had been printed months or even years before. Hope that helps.