Obsolete Currency: First National Bank Of Cooperstown, NY

By: Handini

Although the Civil War brought an end to the Bank Note Era and the rise in National Bank Notes which are still legal tender and therefore not suitable subject matter for this blog, these Banks issued checks which have similar appeal to earlier obsolete notes.

Checks from the First National Bank of Cooperstown, New York, exhibit a beautiful vignette of a hunter and his dog. Below shows a progression in the style of these checks from 1880 to 1916. All but one of these checks appear to be for deposit in the payee's account at the Chase National Bank, at least that's what I'm guessing by what is indicated on the check.

Unlike the Bank Of Cooperstown (1853 - 1864) which became the Second National Bank of Cooperstown, NY (Source: Haxby) with a charter number of 223, notes from the First National Bank, established in 1830 (Source: http://www.bankencyclopedia.com/The-First-National-Bank-of-Cooperstown-7011-Cooperstown-New-York.html), are unlisted in Haxby so it is unlikely that they issued their own currency before the Civil war. Their charter number was 280.

While these checks are from the First National Bank of Cooperstown, the Second National Bank of Cooperstown seems more interesting to collect since a collector can find obsolete notes from what became that bank, as well as National Bank Notes. Nevertheless, these checks are fairly common and sell in the price range from the cost of a venti Latte, to the price of a Big Mac in Las Vegas.

The First National Bank of Cooperstown, NY (1880)