Lot 2869

Description

Farmer's Joint Stock Bank, five dollars or twenty-five shillings, five dollars, Toronto, Feby 1st 1849. No.4580, No.23274, imprint Rawdon, Wright, Hatch & Edson, New York, (P.S1765, S1769). Good extremely fine; holed, fine. (2)

The Farmer's Joint Stock Banking Company (1835-1849) began as a private company and issued its own notes, even after the passage of legistlation in 1837 prohibiting note issue without legislative authority. The bank was one of the four private banks authorised to issue notes wihout legislative authority on an exception basis. Early in the 1840s it quietly wound up, conducting little business apart from the redemption of its circulation. In 1849 the stock was sold to unscrupulous operators who turned the business into a 'wildcat bank', pushing as many of its notes as possible, particularly in the United States. The notes soon fell into disrepute in Toronto and Buffalo, however the bank continuted for several more years, issued notes payable at Green Bay Wisconsin before collapsing.