By Jesse Kraft for American Numismatic Society (ANS) ……
Near the northwest corner of the Hawkeye State, in an area known as the Iowa Great Lakes, the small town of Okoboji boasts a wonderful numismatic delight: the Higgins Museum of National Bank Notes. This form of paper currency occupies a relatively narrow window in the larger scheme of paper money. From 1863 until 1935, National Bank Notes were issued directly by banks that first had to apply for a charter through the United States Government. While the notes issued under this program were ostensibly identical to one another, small differences set them apart from one another–notably, the name of the bank, the town and state of issuance, and the banks’ unique charter numbers (Fig. 2). In 1863, Iowa became the first state to receive a charter for a national bank, with the First National Bank of Davenport and charter number 15.
The Higgins Museum is named after William R. Higgins, Jr. (Fig. 3). A collector from a young age, he initially focused on Crown-sized coins from around the world. The museum was funded from the proceeds of the auctions of his crown collection, which numbered over 7,000 coins when they went up for auction in 1973 and 1974. This was the largest private collection of such coins in the world at the time. Okoboji was near and dear to Higgins, and he even served as the town’s mayor from 1960 to 1974. The museum was officially opened in 1978.
While there are thousands of National Bank Notes on display at the museum, a truly eye-catching object is an antique spider currency printing press (Fig. 4). This press is on loan directly from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP), and was secured through the personal friendship that Higgins had with President Ronald Reagan. The two became friends in the early 1930s while Higgins was attending Drake University in Des Moines and Reagan was an announcer for WHO radio.
According to the museum’s website, the mission of the organization is “the acquisition, preservation and display of the notes, related artifacts and pertinent reference materials relating to the National Bank Note issuance era.” The displays accomplish this, and more, by putting the notes into a larger historical context. While the museum specializes in notes from Iowa, Minnesota, and Missouri, it does have representations of National Bank Notes from every state of issuance. While Minnesota and Missouri have their own rooms dedicated to the National Bank Notes of those states, Iowa has two rooms dedicated to its paper currency. In addition to all its other treasures, the museum boasts the most complete collection of 1902 Red Seal Notes in existence.
These seminars were once a regular occurrence at the Higgins Museum, but they were upended by the COVID epidemic of 2020. A special thank you to the Higgins Museum Foundation, who hosted the event, and to the museum’s curator and ANS Fellow, George Cuhaj, who has been with the museum for two years, and is responsible for resurrecting and organizing the event. It took place on August 1, 2024 and hosted five speakers (Fig. 5) and attracted about 30 audience members:
- Lee Lofthus — “The Hard Life of National Bank Notes: Train Wrecks, Robberies, Fires, and Other Calamities.”
- Jesse Kraft — “Vigilantes of Iowa: Bringing Bank Robberies to a Halt in the 1920s and 1930s”
- Cody Regennitter — “Chicago Small Size Issuers: A General Overview”
- Joe Ridder — “Forbidden Titles of National Bank Notes”
- Joseph “Joe” Boling — “Nineteenth Century National Bank Note Counterfeits”
The Higgins Museum of National Bank Notes is certainly a place that anyone with an interest in United States paper currency should visit. In addition to the thousands of notes on display (and the spider press noted above), the museum also displays various vaults, safes, cash registers, and even a Colt .45 pistol used by the infamous vigilante groups who sought to put an end to bank robberies in Iowa in the 1920s and ’30s (Fig. 6). The museum is absolutely worth the journey.
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