Patriots’ Bank $10 Ad Note

Circa 1901 “Ten Dollars in Patriotic Impulses” “State of War” Advertising Note

Commodore George Dewey, portrait at center. Left, the Olympia which was Dewey’s flagship at the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish–American War. Right, Dewey’s birthplace in Montpelier, Vermont.

In Admiral Dewey Store Cards and Related Items, TAMS Journal 49:4(2), author David E. Schenkman describes how Dewey became a hero on May 1, 1898 by capturing the entire Spanish Pacific fleet without the loss of any American lives. After his newfound fame, “anything and everything possible was created bearing his image,” Schenkman notes, “including bars of soap, furniture, china, mantle clocks, trade cards and other advertising items, pinback buttons, silver spoons, and toys. And, of course, there were tokens and medals.”

Front designed by D.L. Milliken Advertising Novelties, Malden MA (the same company as this advertising note from Rhode Island). Milliken produced items such as these for various merchants in New England in the 1890s. (They also created a similar $1 “American Navy” “State of Patriotism” note featuring Dewey).

As mentioned in the Digest of the Opinions and Briefs of the Solicitor of the Treasury: January 1, 1880 to December 31, 1910, the government reviewed this note’s design and its potential to be passed as a counterfeit. The Digest states that on July 12, 1898, the bill was declared an, “order not payable in money” and therefore “not unlawful.”

Back printed locally by Sun Printing Company, 115-119 Pine Street, Providence (owner, Charles Manshell).

This advertising note was for Jos. Claude at 29 Branch Avenue in Providence, selling “Fresh fish of every description” as well as “groceries, teas, coffees, canned goods, cigars and tobacco.”