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Turner 21a -
National Bank Note Co.
Also, a little-known
American B.N.C. design featuring the same vignette!
| This wonderfully
Victorian $1 revenue essay featuring a beardless Lincoln bust
was produced by the National Bank Note Company. The green
lathework background is surface printed in a fugitive ink.
The lettering and vignette are engraved. This essay was produced
in a wide variety of bi-color combinations, this one being
listed as dark green and dull purple. It is worth examining
the unusual style of engraving of the vignette
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Unlike
most other engravings which are composed of short lines, dots,
and dashes, this bust of Lincoln is composed predominantly of
long, continuous lines. It is intriguing to think of the skill
required to execute this vignette. This image has been greatly
enlarged and enhanced, and is presented in black & white to
minimize downloading time. Below, an American
Bank Note Company design featuring the same vignette.
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Below,
an American Bank Note Company Design, "Lincoln Memorial",
featuring the same vignette as the N.B.N.C. design above.
This die proof on india comes from the A.B.N.C. archives.
Originally assigned the number 514, it was subsequently
crossed out on the die itself and re-assigned the number
V47371. Note also the A.B.N.C. inscription at bottom, right.
What this design was used for is not known to this author.
It is conceivable that the Lincoln vignette was originally
a N.B.N.C. design, the vignette die becoming part of A.B.N.C.'s
inventory when, in 1879, National, Continental, and seven
other banknote companies merged to form what became known
to insiders as "The Consolidation" (formally the A.B.N.C.).
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detail
of the vignette from the die proof above
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