By: Handini
The book Obsolete Banknotes Of North Carolina by J. Roy Pennell Jr. was written in 1985 and is a mere 48 pages only. The book focuses only on Banks and not on merchant's scrip, depression scrip, etc.
Although, banks are the main focus of the book, it is not comprehensive. For example, the Bank of Cape Fear does not have notes from the different branches listed, although it does list the cities the branches were located in. Moreover, Haxby lists $1 and $2 denominations for the Bank of Cape Fear and yet, Pennell only lists denominations from $3 and above.
Unlike other books, rarity values are not listed for the notes presented. To make matters worse, on page 5 it reads: "A table of valuations will be found at the back of the book". No such table is to be found at the back of the book. It does, however, have a list of other books by the publisher as well as other books on obsolete notes.
The book was not written in 1985. The Sanford J. Durst Numismatic Publications version of the book had a copyright of 1985. The original book (publishing date unknown) said it was "Reprinted from Numismatic Scrapbook Magazine with additions." The Numismatic Scrapbook stopped publishing in 1976 probably in February. So the information was written well before that. I searched the Numismatic Scrapbook Title Index through 1963. The title index has gaps as published but there was no reference to Obsolete Banknotes of North Carolina that I could find. So I would guess it might have been written between 1963 and 1976 but definitely not in 1985.
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