The First National Bank of Rondout, N.Y. is one of the most fascinating national banks I have encountered in all my years of analyzing national bank notes. I like technical issues that caused varieties on notes and it doesn’t get better than with this bank.
Just about everything peculiar that could happen, happened!
The bank was chartered in 1863 with charter number 34. It was organized under the Act of Feb. 25, 1863, wherein the bankers got to select the length of their corporate life. The bank was forced to liquidate and reorganize in 1880 under charter 2493 because the bankers had chosen a corporate life of less than 20 years and their clock was running out.
The Comptroller, in the interests of economy, had the BEP reuse the old plates for the new bank, something that happened for only a handful of banks across the country. The result was a trove of $5 Original/1875 plate varieties.
By the time the bank was reorganized in 1880, the town Rondout had been annexed to Kingston, so the town wasn’t right on the old plates. This situation festered for 40 years to the end
