Federal Period
Rare 1791 First Year of Charter United States Loan Office Receipt to The Bank of the United States
December 2, 1791-Dated Federal Period. Partially-Printed Document Signed, “Jno. Gore”, United States Loan Office Receipt from Nathaniel Appleton, Commissioner of Loans State of Massachusetts to The Bank of the United States. Choice Extremely Fine.
The President, Directors and Company, of the Bank of the United States, commonly known as the “First Bank of the United States,” was a National Bank, chartered for a term of twenty years, by the United States Congress on February 25, 1791. It followed the Bank of North America, the nation's first de facto Central Bank. This original 1 page, 6.75” x 5.5”, fresh and vivid Partly-Printed Document is issued by the United States Loan Office at the State of Massachusetts. It reads:

“UNITED STATES LOAN OFFICE, -- State of Massachusetts, 2 Dec. 1791 -- Received of NATHANIEL APPLETON, Commissioner of Loans, Certificate No. 2307 Int.(erest) From October 1791 amounting to Three hundred & seventy two dollars 58 cents in the Funded six per Cent Stock, by virtue of a transfer of 372 Dollars 58 from John Gore. -- To the President directors & Company of the Bank of the United States. - (Signed) “Jno. (John) Gore.”

This is a receipt issued in the state of Massachusetts for sinking the national debt after the Revolutionary War. After Revolutionary War, Congress found itself saddled with almost $8 million in foreign and $42+ million in domestic debt--and without direct powers of taxation as a means to repay the war debt. Continued deterioration of the nation’s finances, culminating in tax revolts like Shay’s Rebellion ultimately led to the Constitutional Convention. With the ratification of the U.S. Constitution in 1789, Congress was finally able to impose and collect taxes. In 1790, Alexander Hamilton proposed a plan to fund the national debt. Rather than pay it off, he recommended the consolidation of old debts into new securities (stocks) with public revenues specifically pledged to pay their interest. Hamilton’s plan was ultimately a success, and what remained of the domestic war debt was paid off by individual states establishing sinking funds to retire any outstanding debt certificates. An extremely rare example.
The First Bank of the United States was a bank chartered by Congress on February 25, 1791. The charter was for 20 years. The Bank was created to handle the financial needs and requirements of the central government of the newly formed United States, which had previously been thirteen individual colonies with their own banks, currencies, and financial institutions and policies.

Officially proposed by Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury, to the first session of the First Congress in 1790, the concept for the Bank had both its support and origin in and among Northern merchants and more than a few New England state governments. This same proposal was eyed with suspicion by the representatives from the Southern States, whose chief industry, agriculture, did not require centrally concentrated banks, and the feelings of states’ rights and suspicion of Northern motives ran strong.

According to the plan put before the first session of the First Congress in 1790, Hamilton proposed establishing the initial funding for the First Bank of the United States through the sale of $10 million in stock of which the United States government would purchase the first $2 million in shares. Hamilton, foreseeing the objection that this could not be done since the U.S. government did not have $2 million, proposed that the government make the stock purchase using money lent to it by the bank; the loan to be paid back in ten equal annual installments. The remaining $8 million of stock would be available to the public, both in the United States and overseas. The chief requirement of these non-government purchases was that one-quarter of the purchase price had to be paid in gold or silver; the remaining balance could be paid in bonds, acceptable scrip, etc.