Description and research notes
The Farmers National Bank of Sussex, New Jersey, traces its charter to May 20 1865 when it opened in nearby Deckertown, a small agricultural hub in Sussex County. Chartered as number 1221, it succeeded the pre-existing Farmers Bank and quickly became the county’s central financial institution. The town adopted the name Sussex in 1903, prompting the bank’s title change the same year. For seventy years, the bank’s management remained a family affair: three generations of the Holbert and Margarum families served as cashiers and presidents, guiding the institution from the Civil War era through the Great Depression.
Situated in a region defined by farming, iron mining, and dairy production, the bank’s lending underpinned the growth of rural northern New Jersey. Its resources expanded from 230 000 dollars in 1865 to more than 3 million by 1928—a scale remarkable for a farming town of fewer than 2 000 residents. Like thousands of similar community banks, it weathered recessions and banking panics through conservative management and local trust.
This note is a Series of 1929 Type 1 ten-dollar issue, carrying the vertical charter numbers 1221 at both margins and the red-brown Treasury seal at right. Type 1s were the first of the small-size nationals introduced that year, still bearing the ornate "National Currency" title and traditional layout derived from earlier large-size designs. It features the Jones–Woods federal signature pair and printed local officer names, continuing the national-local dual structure established by the 1863 Act.
Certified PMG 30 EPQ Very Fine, this survivor retains full color and originality—a rare trait for notes that circulated heavily in rural trade. With fewer than fifty small-size notes known for this charter, it is a tangible link to Sussex County’s 19th-century banking heritage and a surviving witness to the closing generation of the National Banking system.