In following along with the 100 Greatest American Currency Notes series published by Whitman Publishing, we have never encountered a note or notes as unique as this next entry. Rounding out the top 100, the note has quite the history tucked behind it as authors Q. David Bowers and David M. Sundman will explain to us. Our blog series covering the top 100 so far has not yet featured something of this nature.
#100 – Emperor of the United States “Emperor Norton I” Note
You may already be confused by the title of this blog or the note we are featuring. Emperor of the United States?!? There never has been such a thing, but we did, in fact, have one. However, he was self-proclaimed and what Bowers and Sundman call “an imposter.” No matter the proclamation, in the history books where emperors were real, many were also “pretenders.” .
Born in London, England, in 1818, Joshua Abraham Norton moved with his family to Cape Town, South Africa in 1820. He was quite involved in business while there, his parents leaving him with a sizable fortune when they died in the 1840s. It was news from the United States and the booming California Gold Rush that would intrigue Norton enough for him to make the trip to San Francisco from South Africa. He arrived in November of 1849 and would soon be in business as a commission merchant. He made good money in this position and would even join 92 other prominent figures in the area to petition Congress to open a branch mint in San Francisco.
A successful entrepreneur, Norton would purchase real estate and open and operate the first cigar factory and the first rice mill in the city. While trying to corner the market in the rice business, he would end up in financial turmoil after several shiploads of rice would unexpectedly arrive in port. Add that loss to the 1854 and 1855 depressions locally, the rest of his resources were lost, and he would be forced into bankruptcy in 1858. He would take the loss hard, and many would say he suffered from dementia.
In September of 1859, it appeared that Norton was a new man. He emerged from his downfall and headed to the office of the San Francisco Evening Bulletin with this message:
“At the peremptory request and desire of a large majority of the citizens of the United States, I, Joshua Norton, formerly of Algoa Bay, Cape of Good Hope, and now for the last nine years and ten months past of San Francisco, California, declare and proclaim myself the Emperor of these United States...”
As “Emperor of the United States,” he issued “bonds” in the form of elegantly decorated paper money that yielded interest that was payable in 1880. Denominations from 50 cents to $100 were issued at around an approximate rate of 300 per year. Only around three dozen are known to exist today.
Norton would pass away on January 8, 1880, after he collapsed at a downtown corner. It has been claimed that there were over 30,000 attendees at his funeral.
