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1837 Washington, DC HUMBUG GLORY BANK 6 Cents Political/Satirical Note PMG VF-25

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:1,500.00 USD Estimated At:1,800.00 - 2,200.00 USD
1837 Washington, DC HUMBUG GLORY BANK 6 Cents Political/Satirical Note PMG VF-25
Obsolete Currency
1837 Washington, DC. HUMBUG GLORY BANK 6 Cents Political / Satirical “Mock” Bank Note PMG Very Fine-25
August 21, 1837 (printed date), Washington, DC., HUMBUG GLORY BANK, 6 Cents, Political / Satirical “Mock” bank note. N18. PMG graded Very Fine-25.
Haxby-Not listed. HT-XXX in Russ Rulau’s: “Standard Catalog of United States Tokens, 1700-1900”. See Stack’s Ford. An Extremely Rare major type. Printed on thin wove paper and well centered within four very large even margins. Net grade noted for repaired split on its holder. This Political / Satirical “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. There are several stacked 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."


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.