1918 $2 Battleship Note The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Illinois

Description

Starting off with the main attraction to these interesting banknotes is the design on the back, with its imposing visage of the 27,000-ton USS New York dreadnought battleship. The vignette was never labeled on the note itself and was intended to be generic, but in comparing it to an image of New York it is clear the two are the same.

The face of the note has a vignette of third United States President Thomas Jefferson; his first appearance on the Federal $2 bill was on the Series of 1869 Legal Tender, and he can be found there on modern $2 notes to this day.

On the right  is the date May 18, 1914. This is the date when each Federal Reserve bank, as a whole, was incorporated.

Vertically at the far right is the following text:

AUTHORIZED BY THE
ACTS OF DECEMBER 23, 1913,
AND APRIL 23, 1918

The first act refers to when the Federal Reserve System was established; the second, also known as the Pittman Act, allowed the Secretary of the Treasury to withdraw Silver Certificates from circulation and to melt not more than 350 million silver dollars held by the Treasury backing the aforementioned certificates. In conjunction with this, the Federal Reserve banks were allowed to issue these banknotes to replace them in circulation.

All 12 districts of the Federal Reserve system issued  battleship $2 bills, which were printed as late as 1921.