NEW ORLEANS PLANTERS' BANK INFORMATION Público Deposited
The E-Sylum: Volume 6, Number 33, August 17, 2003, Article 12
NEW ORLEANS PLANTERS' BANK INFORMATION
Karl Moulton writes: "In response to Bob Leonard's
request on the Planter's Bank C/S cut quarters, I can offer
the following:One of the earliest appearances in any American auction
catalogue of the Planter's Bank cut and counterstamped 8
Real quarter pieces can be found in the June 26, 1890
Lorin Parmelee sale conducted by New York Coin &
Stamp (Harlan P Smith & David Proskey) lots #290 & #291.
The first lot is of a genuine piece (which sold for $9.), while
the second lot contains a piece with an additional stamp
"Bad" (this lot sold for $4.50).Interestingly, Parmelee had 5 different cut Spanish pieces
with PB counterstamps. The design, as described in the
Parmelee catalogue is, heraldic eagle: NOUVELLE
ORLEANS, P. B. in circle of 16 stars and links. Although
they were not considered important enough to include in
the sale catalogue, there were plates of these five pieces
taken by Boston photographer Baldwin Coolidge shortly
before the sale took place. The one set still extant was
offered in the March 23, 1995 Armand Champa II sale,
conducted by Bowers & Merena, lot #1409.These pieces were formerly considered tokens, primarily due
to Lyman Low's incorrect attribution to Puech Bein & Co.,
approximately 100 years ago. They are not tokens, but
rather emergency issued coinage which circulated as "interim"
American quarter dollars in the Louisiana area between 1811-
1816. These unofficial American counterstamped quarter
pieces were needed to help with the daily commerce and
exchange of smaller Spanish "bits" which were valued at
12 1/2 cents. The reason they stopped circulating was due to
the arrival of nearly 70,000 pieces of the newly re-instated and
re-designed 1815 United States quarter dollars from the
Philadelphia mint aboard the ship Big Free Ocean.It was at the insistence of Planter's Bank cashier, Bailey
Blanchard (as per the board members of the bank), that we
had the quarter dollar denomination continuing as a circulating
denomination in the United States. Production had been
unofficially discontinued in 1807, after Senator Uriah Tracy
had re-introduced legislation to make twenty cent and two
cent pieces.There have been various offerings of these Planters Bank pie
shaped cut and counterstamped pieces scattered throughout
American coin auction catalogues over the years. I too,
would be interested in knowing about the 1863 French book
which has a reference noting these were American related
pieces."- 2003-08-17
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