LOOSE CHANGE: DECEMBER 9, 2018

PREV ARTICLE FULL ISSUE PREV FULL ISSUE

V21 2018 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 21, Number 49, December 9, 2018, Article 26

Here are some additional items I came across in the media this week that may be of interest. -Editor

Mark Hotz has a long-running column in Bank Note Reporter about National Banks. He travels to towns all across the country to visit and document the old bank buildings, many of which still stand today, usually adapted to some other purpose. His December 3, 2018 article records his visit to Brownsville, PA, a small town 40 miles south of Pittsburgh. Here are a couple paragraphs - see the complete article online for many images of notes and buildings. Great photo of an abandoned bank vault. -Editor

The downtown area is Market Street, which is reached off of US 40, which snakes around the town. During its heyday, it supported three large national banks. These were the Second National Bank, charter #2673, which succeeded the First National Bank when it was liquidated in 1882; the Monongahela National Bank, charter #648, which was chartered in 1864 and closed by the receiver in 1931; and the National Deposit Bank, charter #2457, chartered in 1880. These were all very large banks, with the two former issuing over $2,000,000 each in circulation, and the latter with $1.3 million. Though just one note is known from the First National Bank, large and small notes are known from the large three, though not as readily seen on the marketplace. T

Entering Brownsville on Market Street from US 40 is quite the experience. One is immediately amazed by the number of large and abandoned buildings lining both sides of the street. In the center of the downtown area is a large parking area where other large buildings once stood. I parked my car and wandered around the abandoned street. The Flatiron Building at the head of Market Street is owned by the Brownsville Area Revitalization Corporation (BARC) and was open. It has a lot of information about the town and many relics on display. It sits directly across Market Street from the abandoned Second National Bank building, which is part of a string of abandoned buildings culminating in the columned Monongahela National Bank building, also abandoned, which sits next to the parking lot.

To read the complete article, see:
A ghost town worth visiting (https://www.numismaticnews.net/article/a-ghost-town-worth-visiting)

Josh McMorrow-Hernandez of CDN Publishing interviews paper currency dealer Lyn Knight in a video published December 5, 2018. -Editor

Lyn Knight of Lyn Knight Auctions is one of the most well-respected paper currency experts in the industry, having handled some of the rarest and most valuable notes around. His currency auctions cover a wide variety of issues and appeal to the wide spectrum of paper currency collectors.

When we caught up with him at the winter 2018 Baltimore Whitman Expo in late October, he was getting ready for a big currency auction. But he was kind enough to take a few moments with us as he talked about some of his favorite notes and how he got his start in the hobby many years ago.

As we recently learned in that interview with Knight, the paper currency dealer with more than five solid decades of experience hasn’t always dealt in greenbacks. In fact, he got his start in numismatics at the age of 13 in a way most of us who know Knight as a paper currency guy probably wouldn’t have expected. Let’s just say it didn’t involve rare paper currency, but rather the items you might buy to store it in.