1914 Ten Dollar Federal Reserve Note
1914 Ten Dollar Federal Reserve Note
Was it printed on hemp paper ?
Does it have a picture of hemp harvesting on the back of the bill ?
There are multiple websites and posts floating around on social media. Which state, the 1914 Federal Reserve note is printed on hemp paper and has a picture of hemp being harvested on the back side of the bill.
I also have visited several CBD stores and dispensaries which have this bill framed and displayed.
Here are a couple of examples of the “facts” presented, to justify these claims. Actually much of what they say is true, but there are some issues.
This is an example of the things which the sites talk about....
10$ (1914) was Printed on Hemp Paper and Portrays Farmers Plowing Hemp
“The back was designed by Clair Aubrey Huston; Farming, a scene in Manchester Township, York County, Pennsylvania, was engraved by Marcus W Baldwin; Industry, a mill in Joliet, Illinois, was engraved by HL Charlton. The first day of issue was November 16, 1914.”
“Note that Pennsylvania produced hemp through the 1900s, and the crop depicted on the currency is too tall to be wheat or flax, so it’s rather obvious that it’s hemp.”
- historyofhemp.com -- This one also has a video.
Here is another one....
US Currency: In Hemp We Trust
“It is interesting to note that this US currency, one in a series of several different currencies circulating at this time (e.g., Gold Certificates, Silver Certificates), was issued one year after the USDA published its famous 1913 Yearbook, which was devoted solely to hemp. Lester Dewey wrote under Stacking “Hemp stalks which are to be stacked are bound in bundles about 10 inches in diameter…” which looks similar to that of the picture above.”
- www.globalhemp.com, Eric Pollitt, May, 2000
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Was it printed on hemp paper ?
Yes, this is actually a true statement. Actually it is still printed on hemp paper. Our currency has always been printed on hemp paper.
25% linen (flax) and 75% cotton
I just was not Cannabis Sativa (true hemp), like many other vegetable fibers flax is considered hemp. So the US currency has been printed on hemp paper at least since 1879…
US Currency Facts, uscurrency.gov (this is about current paper money in circulation)
Federal Reserve notes are a blend of 25 percent linen and 75 percent cotton. Currency paper has tiny red and blue synthetic fibers of various lengths evenly distributed throughout the paper.
This link is about current paper money in circulation. But from everything I can find once they started using this blend it has not altered… Always been “HEMP” but not “true hemp”
This is an annual report which is filed for the Secretary of Treasury, these were filed by Joseph E Ralph who was the Director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing from 1908 to 1917
Annual Report of the Director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (1902 - 1918)
Document (United States. Dept. of the Treasury), United States. Bureau of Engraving and Printing
This section talks about the design of the Federal Reserve notes which were put into circulation in 1914.
Pg 8 of the 1914 report
During the year considerable work was done in preparing designs for the Federal reserve notes
authorized by the act of December 23 1913. The designs for all of these notes have now been
completed, the plates are being engraved, and printing therefrom has commenced. Orders
have been received for printing in the shortest possible period 6,587,500 sheets, or 26,350,000
notes, having a face value of 250,000,000.
The plan adopted in designing the faces and backs of these notes is one which it is proposed
to follow in all future issues and it uses the same portrait for the face and the same design for
the back for any one denomination in all issues of paper money. The 5 Federal reserve notes
will have on its face the portrait of Lincoln, and all future issues of 5 notes whether gold or
silver certificates or legal tender notes are to have the same portrait on their faces.
The portraits for the faces of the Federal reserve notes are as follows: $5, Lincoln; $10,
Jackson; $20, Cleveland; $50, Grant; $100, Franklin.
The designs adopted for the backs are as follows:
Five dollar: Pictures representing the discovery of land by Columbus on the left-hand side of the note and the landing of the Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock on the right-hand side.
Ten dollar: Typical scenes of agriculture and manufacture, the picture on the left representing a harvesting scene including the most modern mechanical harvester and on the right a picture of a modern factory.
Twenty dollar: Scenes representing transportation on land and water and in the air, the picture on the left of note showing a modern railroad train automobile and aeroplane and on the right an ocean liner in New York Harbor with the New York skyline and the Statue of Liberty in the background.
Fifty dollar: A symbolical picture across the whole note the centerpiece being the figure of a woman and on either side views of the ocean with a merchant steamer on the left and a battleship on the right the idea being to represent. America presiding over the Panama Canal, the oceans representing respectively the Atlantic and Pacific.
One hundred dollar: An allegorical picture covering the entire back of the note composed of a central group representing America seated with figures on either side representing, Peace and Plenty, and on the left hand a figure representing Labor bearing the harvest and a figure representing Mercury on the other end of the note suggesting the distribution of the harvest.
It is believed that the designs for these new notes are the most suitable and the most beautiful that have ever been placed on our paper issues The backs are even more artistic than the faces and at the same time afford the greatest possible protection against counterfeiting
This section is out of the 1915 report..
Pg 6, of the 1915 report
SCARCITY OF CERTAIN SUPPLIES
Great difficulty was experienced during the year in procuring supplies of standard shades of certain dry colors used by the bureau, owing to the fact that the bases of these colors are materials made only in Germany. By prompt action at the beginning of the European war I procured all the available supplies in this country at prices from 100 to 200 percent less than those at which they could later be obtained. These supplies were not sufficient for the year, however, and it was necessary to use such other materials as could be obtained and which approximated the requirements, and by mixtures of these various materials the standard shades were fairly well maintained. This embarrassment still continues and from the present outlook will give greater trouble during the current year, although every effort is being made by our chemists to find satisfactory substitutes of domestic origin.
This is a little information about the company which prints the paper......
Crane Currency - Dalton, Massachusetts -
1775 - Stephen Crane supplied paper for revolutionary banknotes
1879 - W. Murray Crane started making paper for the US government
https://www.cranecurrency.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crane_Currency
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Does it have a picture of hemp harvesting on the back of the bill ?
Let's take a look at actual pictures of Cannabis Sativa “true hemp” and harvesting machines.
This is a picture of the back of the $10 dollar bill in question, wiki has a very good, high resolution scan of this bill. I used this scan to get these pictures.
Very good scan of the bill…. High resolution
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_ten-dollar_bill
These are several pictures which give an idea of what the hemp plant looked like along with harvesting actually looked like in the middle 19th century and early 20th centuries.
Plant Height
“Note that Pennsylvania produced hemp through the 1900s, and the crop depicted on the currency is too tall to be wheat or flax, so it’s rather obvious that it’s hemp.” - historyofhemp.com
Pg 356, L'illustration, 1860
Pg 23 - The Reign of Law: A Tale of the Kentucky Hemp Fields, 1900, James Lane Allen
Pg 66, Farmer's cyclopedia of agriculture, 1904, Earley Vernon Wilcox
Pg 1, Wisconsin's Hemp Industry, 1918 - notice the height of the plants also….
Now lets look at the machine which is pictured on the back of the bill.
The machine in the pictured on the bill is called a reaper/binder. Which was invented in 1872 by Charles Baxter Withington, Janesville, Wisconsin which would make it fit the time frame, but for hemp the reaper/binder was not invented until the 1920's
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaper - 1834, Cyrus McCormick, Walnut Grove, Virginia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaper-binder - 1872, Charles Baxter Withington, Janesville
Here are some pictures of a reaper used to harvest hemp. It would lay down the stalks of hemp so that it could be dew retted, which it was then bundled up later.
Pg 548, Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture, 1901
Pg 308, Scientific American, Charles Richards Dodge, 1915
This is a link to another picture of harvesting hemp in this timeframe.
https://wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/IM52531
One thing I would like to point out is the size of the hemp, compared to the machine (reaper not a binder/reaper) and people.
I could say something about the Declaration of Independence but there is a strong possibility that since they more than like were using "rag paper" (have to use old definition of this) it is likely it did contain some "true hemp". They made paper out of just about any vegetable fiber they could find during this time, rags and ropes.... etc.
#hemphistory
