Obsolete Currency
“Roman Firmness” Humbug Glory Note “10 Cents in mint drops or Glory at Cost” Haxby-Not listed Rare Major Type
1834-Dated, Humbug Glory Bank, “10 Cents in mint drops or Glory at Cost.” Satirical Mock Bank Note Parody, PMG graded net Very Fine-25.
Haxby-Not listed. HT-XXX in Russ Rulau’s “Standard Catalog of United States Tokens, 1700-1900”. See Stack’s Ford.Ex WRHS: Lot 1026. Extremely Rare major type. Noted for stains on its holder. Printed on thin paper and well centered within four large even margins. This mock bank note parodies the "shinplasters" of the 1837 panic. Based on the division of the Spanish dollar, which was common during the Panic of 1837 with the emergency suspension of the specie (i.e. money in coin) payments by New York banks on May 10 of that year. The note is payable to "Tumble Bug Benton" Missouri senator and hard-money advocate Thomas Hart Benton, and is signed by "Cunning Rueben [Whitney], anti-bank advisor to Jackson and Van Buren, Cash'r, and "Honest Amos [Kendall], postmaster General and Van Buren advisor. T are several coins with the head of Andrew Jackson on the left hand side, a jackass with the title "Roman Firmness", a hickory leaf (referring to Jackson' nickname of "Old Hickory), and a vignette showing Jackson's hat, clay pipe and spectacles, hickory stick and veto of the 1832 bill to recharter the Bank of the United States. At the top of the bill is a quote from Jackson's March 1837 farewell address, "I leave this great people prosperous and happy."


See Stack’s Ford.Ex WRHS: Lot 1026.