Our Price: $75

Bank of Commerce Georgia $20 Note Signed in 1857 by G.B. Lamar as bank president. This attractive note features a river raft scene as the central vignette flanked by a herd of cattle and a lumber jack.

The reverse at one one time stated that it was redeemable at a New York bank but was crossed out due to the outbreak of the Civil War.

Gazaway Bugg Lamar (1798-1874) was a steamboat pioneer from Georgia who went on to found a Wall Street bank. After the start of the American Civil War, he returned to his native Georgia and became active in banking and supporting the war effort in several ways including founding the Import Export Company of Georgia one of the blockade runners of the American Civil War. At war's end and with Sherman's troops approaching, he took Lincoln's oath (sometimes called the Proclamation of Amnesty) to uphold the United States constitution in return for the promise that all his property rights would be restored. It took until 1874 before he received a settlement of almost $580,000, a huge sum at that time.

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