My wife and I have been binge-watching the AMC-produced Interview with the Vampire television series, which is (loosely) based on Anne Rice’s eponymous series of gothic novels. The first episode involves a surprising amount of paper money, so of course I viewed it with particular interest!
For those not familiar with this television series, the plot of Interview with the Vampire centers around the character Louis. He is describing to a contemporary journalist his life before and after meeting Lestat, an older vampire who converted him. (In the 1994 movie version, these characters were played by Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise.) There is also a subplot involving the sister of Louis, who gets married in the first episode.
The first episode definitively states that the story begins in 1910. Louis’ sister makes an offhand remark about getting married in a month. (These details will become important later!) Louis and Lestat also meet, and engage in a kind of contest to see who can “out pay” the other by throwing down increasingly larger stacks of notes. This precipitates a flurry of large red and brown seals, and it was good to see them! It looked like Louis and Lestat were dropping a mix of Series 1880 Legal Tenders and series 1891 Treasury Notes. (Probably Series 1891 because I saw some of the characteristic simplified “open” reverse designs of the 1891 Treasury Notes but none of the ornate 1890 backs. On the other hand, they did go by quickly!)
Although series 1901 and 1907 Legal Tenders ($10 and $5, respectively) would have been more strictly contemporary to the storyline, I suspect the show opted for the older notes with an eye to the visual impact of the different styles and colors of seals. (Say what you will about Bisons and Woodchoppers, but a small scalloped red seal is not very dramatic!) And it doesn’t stretch credulity that Series 1880 Legal Tenders and series 1891 Treasury Notes would still have been around at the time, albeit definitely nearing the end of their circulating lives.
Then comes the wedding of Louis’ sister. (Recall that the story, and the wedding, is definitively stated to take place in 1910!) After the ceremony, the bride is shown with large notes pinned to her dress. This tradition is called a Money Dance – money is attached to the bride’s dress while dancing with the bride, or in order to secure a dance with the bride. The same tradition is shown in one of the wedding scenes in the movie The Godfather.
And what notes do we see? As you can probably guess, a couple of 1914 $100 Federal Reserve Notes, like the high-quality example accompanying this article, which is a Fr. 1091 from New York in 66PPQ with the signature combination of Treasurer Frank White and Secretary of the Treasury Andrew W. Mellon. Given that the Federal Reserve System itself would not be created until 1913, and there’s no mention of vampires being able to time travel, this is an obvious anachronism! (Even worse, there are a couple of 1923 $1 Silver Certificates pinned to the bride’s dress as well!)
This seems like a glaring oversight, given the attention paid in the earlier scene to attractive and period-correct money. I suspect there was some editing done to compress the timeline in the show and/or some re-writing in the voiceover, so that earlier events as shot were set even earlier, and later events were even later.
None of those observations are to fault this note, of course. The Large-Size Federal Reserve Notes were, in terms of the overall face design, an obvious predecessor to our modern small-size Federal Reserve Notes. Many of the features are familiar: the black main print and border, an oval portrait of Ben Franklin on the $100, the black Federal Reserve Branch seal at left, and a colored Treasury Seal (blue, in this case, instead of green) at right.
But the reverse, outside of the expected green color and border, is nothing like the modern small-size version, which shows Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Almost the entire note is taken up by a group of five allegorical figures, which I interpret as: Liberty (with Phrygian cap and crowned by laurel leaves) embracing, at left, Prosperity (represented by the cornucopia and crowned with wheat ears) and, at right, Peace (holding out an olive branch). Prosperity gestures towards Agriculture (with a sickle in his belt, holding a sheaf of wheat) and Peace gestures towards Industry. (This might be more specifically Transportation, represented by Hermes, in winged hat and shoes, carrying his caduceus and a package tied with string.)
But it is difficult not to consider this allegory in its larger historical context. What would become World War I began in July 1914, and although the United States would not be drawn into the conflict until April 1917, the choice of central figure seems prescient. And then there is the figure of Prosperity. The period of December 1913 to January 1914 was a financial recession in the United States, with business and industry declining an average of 20% to 25% during that period. Later on in 1914 there was also a financial crisis, during which the stock market in the United States was closed for four months. However, this crisis also led to the subsequent ascendancy of the United States in the world financial markets.
To further complicate the picture, the Federal Reserve Act, which allowed for the issue of the 1914 Federal Reserve Notes, was passed by Congress, then signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson on December 23, 1913. The impetus for the creation of the Federal Reserve was actually the Panic of 1907, sometimes called the Banker’s Panic or the Knickerbocker Crisis. In October 1907, the stock market fell 50% over a three week period when a bid to corner the stock of the United Copper Company failed, forcing the third-largest trust company in New York City into bankruptcy. Industrialist J.P Morgan ultimately arrested the Panic (and essentially saved the economy) by pledging his own resources and buying some of the principal institutions in distress.
The Panic of 1907 brought about the National Monetary Commission, which suggested something like the Federal Reserve System. Like, but not quite. The Aldrich Plan was most likely formulated in a secret meeting in 1910 between the head of the commission, Senator Nelson W. Alrich of Rhode Island, and the heads of the so-called “Money Trust.” It was opposed by rural and western states, as well the Democratic party generally in the 1912 election, for giving too much power to private banks in New York City and too little power to the federal government. A 1912 House of Representatives subcommittee, the Pujo Committee, concurred.
So, instead of a National Reserve Association, with 15 branches and 46 directors from various regional banks, we have a Federal Reserve System, with 12 branches and an independent sevenmember Federal Reserve Board. Members of the board are appointed by the president and approved by the United States Senate. This allows the Federal Reserve to effectively oversee the banking system and regulate the money supply.
It also led to the creation of this beautiful $100 1914 Large- Size Federal Reserve Note, now safely encapsulated in a PCGS Banknote holder – even if Hollywood can’t seem to quite get the chronology right!