Advertising Notes

A History & Catalog of Minnesota Obsolete Bank Notes & Scrip has detailed articles about this and other major categories of obsolete bank notes.  Order your copy from the books section of R. M. Smythe & Co. today.

Advertising notes were a means to stimulate trade with ads that looked like money.  They were given away by merchants.  Among the earliest of Minnesota merchants to distribute ad notes was Mott & Palmes, merchant tailors, around 1856, when Minnesota was still a territory.

In the 1860s, some of the more popular ad notes resembled contemporary Legal Tender Notes, although they usually carried the denomination of three dollars.  The notes were not good for three dollars, but were merely good for a discount on cash purchases.

Some notes resembled U.S. Fractional Currency of the day, like this one from Moran's New Shoe Store.

The makers of Silver & Copper Tipped Boots & Shoes supplied their dealers with fancy advertising notes.  The backs of the notes had one of several different rebus messages, that entertained prospective customers.

 Some ad notes took on a unique look, like this one from the Royal Bodega in St. Paul.