Description and research notes
The First National Bank of Philadelphia holds Charter 1, the very first federal national bank charter issued under the National Banking Act of 1863. Granted on June 20, 1863, it became the prototype for a new system that tied local banknotes to United States bonds and standardized design, redemption, and supervision across the country.
Charter 1 anchored Philadelphia finance from the Civil War through the Great Depression. Early leadership included Morton McMichael Jr. as cashier with presidents Clarence H. Clark and George Philler, later followed by Kenton Warne, Thomas W. Andrew, Carl H. Chaffee, and Livingston E. Jones in the 1902 series to 1930s period. As the city industrialized and its capital markets expanded, the bank absorbed neighboring nationals and carried Charter 1 forward through multiple consolidations, keeping the lowest-numbered charter alive into the modern era.
This note is a Series of 1929 Type 1 ten-dollar issue. Type 1 small-size nationals display the bank title across the center, vertical charter numerals at the far left and right, and the red-brown Treasury seal at right. The federal signature pair is Jones and Woods, while the engraved local officers appear along the bottom margin, preserving the national-local partnership that defined the system since 1863. Friedberg lists this format as 1801-1 for $10 Type 1 notes.
Certified PMG 25 Very Fine, this piece represents the closing generation of National Currency linked to the first charter ever granted. Surviving Charter 1 notes are historically important not only to Pennsylvania collectors but to the entire narrative of American banking, illustrating how a single Philadelphia institution stood at the inception of uniform national money and remained present at its final small-size issue in 1929.