Obsolete banknotes - Obsolete banknotes - 1 dollar, 1862, Bank of Commerce, Georgia, Confederate issue. Condition as seen on the picture.

In the 19th century, before the United States had a centralized national currency, obsolete banknotes were paper money issued by thousands of individual state-chartered banks between about 1810 and 1865. Each bank printed its own notes with intricate engravings of allegorical figures, animals, or local scenes, and their value depended entirely on the issuing bank’s reputation. They are called obsolete because these notes lost their legal tender status after the National Banking Acts (1863–1865) introduced a uniform national currency and required state banks to withdraw their private issues. Once rendered invalid for circulation, they became collectors’ items, valued today for their craftsmanship and glimpse into early American banking history.