This month’s article combines some common-sense questions about National Bank Notes and a bit of financial sleuthing to present a very interesting piece of national banking history.
A few years ago, when I was actively collecting national bank notes of my home state of Maryland, I came across three notes from the same bank that piqued my interest. These notes each hailed from the First National Bank of Hagerstown, Md., charter #1431. This was one of the state’s oldest banks from a town that was at one time Maryland’s second-largest city. Hagerstown is the seat of Washington County, in Western Maryland, about 70 miles due west of Baltimore.
The notes were all Series of 1902 Blue Seal notes, and what drew me to them was that
