2017-03-09 Thu

Serial number 1 $5 Brown Back from the First National Bank of Medicine Lodge, Kansas will be offered by Stack’s Bowers Galleries at the Official Currency Auction of the Whitman Coin and Collectibles Spring Expo. Only $285 out of the total $40,060 were outstanding in 1910. The offered note is the only known example issued by the bank. Even though the note has some folds, it’s graded Very Fine 30 with “Minor Restoration” on the margins. It has an estimated value of $30,000 to $50,000.

Kiowa people believed that the Medicine Lodge River Medicine Lodge was sacred as it contained a good amount of healing Epsom salts. They occupied the region before the whites came in. They also built a tabernacle for conducting their annual sun dance in 1866. Medicine Lodge Treaties was signed here, between the United States and Plains Indians tribes like the Kiowa, Comanche, Apache, Arapaho and Cheyenne.

In February 1873, white settlers, under the leadership of John Hutchinson, built the town on a 400-acre site between the Elm Creek and Medicine Lodge River. Local livestock trade started flourishing. On 24th September 1884, the First National Bank received its charter. Just $5 Brown Backs in sheets of four notes each were released. 2,003 sheets were issued until 1st March 1894. Plate C note offered at the auction is the first sheet of notes. The Citizens National Bank of Medicine Lodge (1886 – 1891) issued $175 outstanding notes in 1910.