It is with excitement that Andrew Shiva announces the release of the Encyclopedia of U. S. National Bank Notes published jointly by his National Currency Foundation and the Society of Paper Money Collectors.

The encyclopedia is huge, currently containing some 1,500 pages, 1,400 illustrations and 210 tables divided into 144 chapters organized into 17 topical sections.

The encyclopedia is too large and would be too costly to publish in print form so it is being made available in digital form through both the National Currency Foundation and Society of Paper Money websites.

Both the NCF and SPMC have educational commitments to disseminate information that promotes the research and collecting of paper money; thus, publication of the encyclopedia affords a natural collaboration that furthers this objective for both organizations. Preparation of the encyclopedia has been largely sponsored by the NCF and details of maintaining it on line have been assumed by the SPMC. It is presented free of charge as a service to not only numismatists but the public at large.

The encyclopedia covers every aspect of national bank notes from why they originated during the Civil war to why they were phased out 72 years later. As for the notes themselves, an explanation is provided for why there were different series and backs. The protocols are explained that governed how every other design element on the notes functioned and evolved over time. Much of this was dictated by Congressional legislation, the rest by decisions made by Treasury officials as the national bank note era unfolded.

The encyclopedia represents a significant part of the life work of U. S. currency researcher Peter Huntoon, who has been writing about national bank notes since 1966. Over the intervening decades, he has collaborated with the leading national bank note researchers and collectors to coauthor this treatise.

The core of most of the encyclopedia represents original research that Huntoon and his colleagues have conducted using primary Treasury documents now preserved in the National Archives and at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. A major resource that they used were the certified proofs lifted from the printing plates that were used to print national bank notes now housed in the National Numismatic Collection in the Smithsonian Institution.

A significant fraction of the information in the encyclopedia builds on material already published elsewhere, primarily in the SPMC journal Paper Money. However, much has never been released before. All of it has been reworked, updated and corrected based on the most recent research available. One major value of the encyclopedia is that it conveniently assembles all of this material in one place.

The arrangement of the subject matter into chapters within topical sections allows for the addition of new chapters as they are written. Equally significant is that by making it available digitally, updates and corrections can be made in real time as new information and insights are developed and mistakes-even typos- are discovered. To this end, a version date is provided at the bottom of the first page of each chapter. The encyclopedia is designed to be a dynamic work in progress.

This link will take you to the encyclopedia.
https://content.spmc.org/wiki/Encyclopedia_of_U.S._National_Bank_Notes
Click on
Click on any chapter of interest to read or down load it.

A few chapters have internal hot links to large tables or photo files.