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What fascinates me most about collecting national bank notes is that they run the gamut from the largest, most well known institutions to the smallest, most personable institution. Because I live in Yolo County, California , just west of Sacramento County, I am intrigued with the four national banks in Yolo County that issued national bank notes.

One of these is The Bank of Woodland, National Association.

Bank of Woodland was Yolo County’s first banking institution when organized in 1868, with $100,000 in capital. Founding stockholders came from across the county and included merchants, farmers, and millers. While urban banks used images of industry or liberty on their checks, the Bank of Woodland paid tribute to its agrarian customer base with a picture of a bull prominently displayed on its checks. It was one of those checks that cost the bank dearly.

In the days before electronic banking, the surest way to guarantee a check’s value was for a merchant to use a safety mechanism that punched a check’s value on or through the paper. In the 1890′s, one of Bank of Woodland’s customers wrote a check for twelve dollars — but a forger took the twelve dollar check and recast it as a twenty-two thousand dollar check! The forger even used a pin to punch meticulously the supposed safety values through the check.

Only later was the fraud discovered….