By: Handini
The Cataract City Bank of Paterson, NJ notes in my collection are some of my prized notes. Not only do these notes have an interesting name for a bank but they also have interesting vignettes. Adding to their rarity is the fact that the bank only lasted for 4 years, from 1856-1860. (Source: Haxby).
The Cataract City Bank of Paterson, NJ notes in my collection are some of my prized notes. Not only do these notes have an interesting name for a bank but they also have interesting vignettes. Adding to their rarity is the fact that the bank only lasted for 4 years, from 1856-1860. (Source: Haxby).
I never seem to think about trying to locate the building in Paterson which used to be the location of the bank, whenever I go up to New Jersey. The vignette on the $1 shows some pigs pigging out, the $2 shows Niagara Falls from the Canadian side. The $3 shows progress and industry taking over. These notes are dated from 1856.
$1 Cataract City Bank of Paterson, NJ (1856)
Haxby NJ-410-G2c
Image Contribution: Handini
$2 Cataract City Bank of Paterson, NJ (1856)
Haxby NJ-410-G4c
Image Contribution: Handini
$3 Cataract City Bank of Paterson, NJ (1856)
Haxby NJ-410-G6c
Image Contribution: Handini
I was at a coin show in 1999 and a dealer mentioned how a $3 Cataract note had sold for over $1000. This amount was a lot for a broken bank note at that time but is a more common price today. I was fortunate to find the one above for considerably less due to the large tear found horizontally through the center of the note.
Not only is the $3 above (Wait 1836) listed as an R-7 note (Source: Wait), but it's vignette is an interesting one too. It's vignette shows Native Americans on a cliff observing smoke stacks in the distance. All of the environmental jargon the media has been fixated on these past few years helps to enhance the value of such a note because it shows the environmental impacts of industry at the start of the Industrial Revolution.
On a side note however, the Industrial Revolution is said to have begun around 1850, the same date the Little Ice Age is said to have "abruptly" ended. We humans cannot therefore be blamed for the initiation of any warming trend said to have occurred since then, as there would have been a lag time for anthropogenic causes to take effect. It's similar to how the hottest days of the year tend to occur a few weeks after Summer Solstice and the coldest days of the year tend to occur a few weeks after Winter Solstice.
Close Up Of Haxby NJ-410-G6c Vignette
Image Contribution: Handini
Here's a bonus $3 for show and tell:
$3 Cataract City Bank of Paterson, NJ (1856)
Image Contribution: Handini
You think I can buy some of these note?
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