As a retired coin collector in the process of selling off much of my collection, I still enjoy occasional new purchases, albeit on a much lower budget. I also enjoy window shopping on the bourse floor at the coin shows I attend. The coins I seek are like needles in a haystack to fill holes in my collection, or they can be whatever catches my eye. I only carry enough cash to make nominal purchases, which makes it a fun and inexpensive outing at the show.

One of the nice things about having the ANA’s Worlds Fair of Money show near where I live is that my coin club charters a bus to the show. It’s always a good day when I can talk “shop” with other like-minded people riding with me. At the 2024 ANA Worlds Fair of Money in Chicago, I struck a deal on a “catch my eye” item. The following paragraphs tell the fun of closing the deal and the numismatic story behind my purchase.

I typically walk the tables on the bourse floor towards the center of the aisle to get a good feel of the coins dealers are selling. As I walked by one table, a currency dealer caught my ear. The dealer asked me what I collected, and I told him coins, as I intended to keep on walking. He followed up this question by asking me if I were to purchase currency, what would it be? I thought to myself, OK, I’ll bite, and I answered that I’m interested in National Currency bank notes. Like a fish on a hook, I sat at his table examining a stack of large-size National Currency bank notes.

Thumbing through a stack of his series 1902 ten-dollar bank notes, I hit upon a San Francisco note issued by the “Bank of Italy” and set it aside. Not seeing any other note that caught my interest, I asked the dealer why the Bank of Italy was identified as the issuing bank on US currency. I was impressed by the dealer’s knowledge of this note when he reeled off a few facts about the note.

A sucker for a good story, it was a sale, and we proceeded to close the deal. The dealer quoted me a cash price that was slightly higher than the cash I had on hand and asked me if I had anything to trade. Since I am liquidating portions of my collection, I had an MS-61 1907-O Barber quarter and an AU-53 1912-D Barber half with me. The dealer was uninterested in the half and asked me what I wanted for the quarter. I told him what I wanted, and he countered for the quarter and $100 cash to close the deal. At that point, it was a sale! The dealer was happy with his deal, and I was pleased with my deal. I thought this was how the art of the deal should work with both of us happy.

When I got my PCGS VF-25 note home, I jumped on the internet to check on the dealer’s facts. I was pleased to find that what he told me about my note was factual.

The obverse of this $10 note features a vignette of the 25^th president of the United States, President William McKinley. President McKinley was assassinated in 1901. The Liberty & Progress allegorical reverse of this “plain back” variety note was issued between 1908 and 1929. The date February 26, 1927, on the obverse of the note, denotes the date the bank was organized. On March 1, 1927, the bank was chartered with the identifying number 13044. The bank president whose signature is on the note is James Augustus Bacigalupi.

The Bank of Italy National Trust and Savings Association was opened in 1904 by  Amadeo Peter Giannini to serve the little guy, particularly the large, underserved Italian immigrant population in California. A recent law school graduate, James Augustus Bacigalupi, was hired for a rent-free room. Amadeo Peter Giannini was inducted into the California Museum in 2010. He is known as the father of modern consumer banking.

The Bank of Italy National Trust and Savings Association was renamed the Bank of America National Trust and Savings Association on November 1, 1930. In 1998, the Bank of America merged with NationsBank. NationsBank retained the Bank of America name, and today, I own a small number of shares in the Bank of America Corp. in my IRA.

Below is the internet website bibliography of the research I collected to write this blog. Gary.

https://banknotehistory.spmc.org/wiki/National_Bank_Note_Types_-_Series_1902_Plain_Back

https://banknotehistory.spmc.org/wiki/Bank_of_Italy_NT_&_SA/Bank_of_America_NT_&_SA,_San_Francisco,_CA_(Charter_13044)#Official_Bank_Title.28s.29

https://banklookup.spmc.org/bank/13044

https://californiamuseum.org/inductee/a-p-giannini/

 https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bacigalupi-11