Caitlyn Trautwein, Senior Associate Editor at Whitman Publishing, writes about her recent trip to Baltimore, to scan beautiful Maryland obsolete bank notes at Coast to Coast Coins.
My latest adventure in numismatics landed me in Baltimore, Maryland, week before last to visit the headquarters of Coast to Coast Coins. There I met with Ken Pines, who generously agreed to allow me to come and scan his collection of Maryland obsolete paper money for inclusion in the next Whitman Encyclopedia of Obsolete Paper Money. Hitting shelves this holiday season, volume 8 will encompass the states of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, as well as the District of Columbia. The region is obviously one that is rich with history, both numismatically and otherwise, and so I was greatly looking forward to seeing such a large collection of paper money in person.
The history of numismatics is what draws my interest most, and the vignettes found on obsolete paper money are saturated with it. You can learn much about where a note was issued purely from the images found on the note itself—agriculture, shipbuilding, milkmaids, gods and goddesses, mills, bank buildings, animals, industry. Even details such as where a note was payable, or in what funds, add to the intrigue of this particular bank-note-issuing era.