Political
The Printers’ Bank ‘One Dime’ Political-Satirical Note
(1837) Not dated, Political & Satirical Note, (Philadelphia, PA), “The Printers’ Bank,” “Received of Dr. Faustus One Dime,” PMG graded Very Fine-25.
Haxby-Not listed. N28C. A Fabulously designed and Exceedingly Rare, Political & Satirical Note, the very first of this wonderful type we have offered. Large central vignette of a well to do gentleman walking in the street with a bundle in his right hand perhaps being currency on fire(?) with others looking on. Legends: “CAPITAL - $0,000,000.” Right margin design has “PRINTERS’ BANK” in a decorative surround and the Left margin three profiles at center of “GUTTENBERG - FUST- SCHOEFFER” with ONE in reverse above and below. (Peter Schoeffer was a principal worker in Johann Gutenberg's printing house in Mainz. As a young man he had been sent to Paris by Johann Fust to train as a calligrapher and engraver.) Central text below reads: “Received of Dr. Faustus ONE DIME, - Being part of a deposit of THIRTY THOUSAND, which is payable to him, with interest, at a rate of one per cent, per annum, at the Chapel of the STREET GAZETTE, in the current Quoin (coin) of the Bank.”

See: Russ Rulau’s “Standard Catalog of United States Tokens, 1700-1900”. Ex: Western Reserve Historical Society: (no lot tag) Lot 1031
The Panic of 1837 was a financial crisis in the United States that touched off a major recession that lasted until the mid-1840s. Profits, prices, and wages went down while unemployment went up. Pessimism abounded during the time. The panic had both domestic and foreign origins. Speculative lending practices in western states, a sharp decline in cotton prices, a collapsing land bubble, international specie flows, and restrictive lending policies in Great Britain were all to blame.

On May 10, 1837, banks in New York City suspended specie payments, meaning that they would no longer redeem commercial paper in specie at full face value.

Despite a brief recovery in 1838, the recession persisted for approximately seven years. Banks collapsed, businesses failed, prices declined, and thousands of workers lost their jobs. Unemployment may have been as high as 25% in some locales. The years 1837 to 1844 were, generally speaking, years of deflation in wages and prices.