County of Origin: Travis County
Town of Issue: Austin
Currency Type: "Redback"
Denomination: $50.00
Bank Issuer: Republic of Texas
Imprint: Rawdon, Wright, Hatch & Edson. New Orleans.; Rawdon, Wright & Hatch New-York.; Engraved by Geo. [W.] Hatch.
Date Issued: May 22, 1839
Vignette: (L) Nude Venus standing. (C) Steamship (three-mast side-wheeler) and sailing ship (brig). (R) Bust of Stephen F. Austin. Lower center: Lone Star seal.
Notes: This redback note was issued in Austin by the Republic of Texas. Redbacks were issued from late 1839 until 1842. The most prolific issue of Texas money, redbacks were reissued and stamped as such, thus the total number issued is not known. Redbacks were named for the red ink used on their versos. A vignette of Venus rising from the water appears in the upper-left corner of the note; sea creatures surround her. A vignette of a three-mast side-wheeler is printed towards the upper-right center of the note; a brig appears in the background. The number 50 is printed to the left of this vignette. A bust of Stephen Fuller Austin is printed in the center of the right border of the note; the number 50 is printed above and below the portrait. The number 50 is printed in the lower-left corner. The abbreviation No. appears towards the upper-left corner of the note; the number 411. is handwritten opposite it. The plate designation A appears towards the upper-right corner of the note. A seal of the Republic of Texas appears along the lower-center edge of the note. The month, day and last two digits of the year are handwritten; the first two digits of the year, 18, are printed. The note is signed on the recto by James Webb, acting Secretary of the Treasury, and Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar, President. Webb, a native of Virginia, was a judge, politician, and legislator (TSHA). During the Republic years, Webb was secretary of the treasury, secretary of state, attorney general, a senator during several congresses, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and a member of the Foreign Relations Committee (Ibid.) He later served as a United States district judge, secretary of state (1849-1851), and judge of the Fourteenth Judicial District (Ibid.). Lamar was a solider, the second president of the Republic, a representative of Nueces and San Patricio counties in the Second Texas Legislature, and the United States minister to Nicaragua and Costa Rica beginning in 1857 (TSHA). Two ornate designs printed in red ink comprise the left and right borders of the note's verso; a five-pointed star and the letters of the word TEXAS are printed in red ink in-between the two designs. CR: A-7.
Signatures: James Webb actg Secy. Treasy.; Mirabeau B Lamar Prest.
Dimensions: 7.8 x 18.4 cm.
File: TravisAustin0000071_opt.jpg
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