1892 Kidder Peabody Co Boston Bill of Exchange Florins Vienna Austria Boston MA For Sale

1892 Kidder Peabody Boston Bill of Exchange Florins Vienna Bethmann Frankfurt Boston MA

Approximately 4\" by 9\" see pics for condition. Tear to top left.

Kidder, Peabody & Co. – Boston, Massachusetts – Second of Exchange – October 20, 1892

This is an original 19th-century foreign bill of exchange issued by Kidder, Peabody & Co., one of Boston\'s most prominent banking houses. It was drawn in Austro-Hungarian florins and payable in Vienna.

Details:

• Issuer: Kidder, Peabody & Co., Boston, Mass., U.S.A.
• Date: October 20, 1892
• Amount: Fls. 47.62 (Forty-seven 62/100 Florins)
• Terms: \"At sight\" – Second of Exchange (First and Third unpaid)
• Payee: Marianna Bornowsky (handwritten; spelling as best read)
• Drawn on: F. A. Engel, Esq., Vienna
• Charged to the account of: Gebr. Bethmann, Frankfort (Gebrüder Bethmann, the historic Frankfurt banking house)
• Serial No.: 28613
• Signed: Kidder, Peabody & Co.
• Printer: American Bank Note Co., New York & Boston

The note is engraved on lavender-tinted security paper. The left panel has a large ornate \"2\" numeral and a fine vignette of a harbor scene with a medallion. The firm\'s name appears in a bold engraved banner across the top, and the manuscript is written in a flowing period script.

Pieces like this show the transatlantic banking network of the Gilded Age, in which a Boston house, a Frankfurt bank, and a Vienna correspondent worked together to move money. Many of these drafts were likely remittances sent home by immigrants. This one was issued the same year Austria-Hungary began moving from the florin (gulden) to the krone.