FARMVILLE – John Cabaniss went to the American Numismatic Association exposition in Philadelphia last summer and came back with a ten-dollar bill.

Not just any ten bucks, either.

The ten-dollar bill is 83 years old.

Most importantly, on the left hand side, next to the portrait of Alexander Hamilton, are the words The Peoples National Bank Of Farmville Virginia.

“The Don Kelly Catalogue, which is the most comprehensive national currency guide in existence, states that this note is one of seven in current existence, which makes this quite rare,” said Cabaniss, a graduate of Longwood University, with a history major, who now has his MBA in Business and works for LU's College of Education and Human Services.

Only six other ten-dollar bills from The Peoples National Bank of Farmville are known to exist. And the Peoples National Bank of Farmville was one of only two Farmville charters empowering local banks notes.

“Notes of this type, from small charters and small towns such as Farmville, Virginia are increasingly scarce. Not very many of them were produced to begin with,” said Cabaniss.

This bill was among those printed in 1929, at the outset of the Great Depression when national confidence in banks was teetering.

“This was printed due to the fact that the government was in a very tight situation, the economy was very rough, and banks printed their own money that was backed by a national circuit,” said Cabaniss, who is also a currency dealer. “So each of these banks belonged to a national bank system but each of the banks had their own separate entity. Now we're backed by the Federal Reserve…

“…I think that what had happened during The Depression is that people were not very confident in the government system of banking so they wanted to see their local bank having some affiliation with the money that was being printed,” Cabaniss explains. “It was more of a comfort zone. And each individual bank belonged to this national system so it was the responsibility of each of the banks to manage their own funds but it was all part of the national bank system.”

National Bank Notes, or the National Currency, were established during the Civil War, through the National Banking Act, which created the system of National Banks, of which The Peoples National Bank Of Farmville became a member when it was founded in 1908.

The federal government backed the value of the currency notes because National Banks deposited bonds in the U.S. Treasury, which allowed the banks to print the currency bearing their name.

The U.S. government retired the National Currency in the 1930s as U.S. currency became consolidated into Federal Reserve Notes. No more local bank notes were printed.

The so-called “hometown” notes are highly favored by collectors and a note from Walla Walla, then part of the pre-statehood Washington Territory, was sold for $161,000 at a June of 2010 auction.

Cabaniss reckons his Farmville ten-dollar note is worth $160,600 less than the Walla Walla bill.

Or about $400.

The American Numismatic Association was created in 1891 and is dedicated to advancing the knowledge of the study of money, which is what numismatics means, along educational, historical, and science trains of thought.

There are over 300 dealers attending the Philadelphia exposition where a dealer knew Cabaniss would appreciate the Farmville National Currency Note.

“This was the last of the National Currency,” said Cabaniss. “This note bears a lot of similar resemblance to a current $10 bill, however, there are distinguishing characteristics and information that will allow people to understand the differences. It's got a brown seal, which indicates that it's National Currency…”

And the name of the bank.

Cabaniss knows there might be some other denominations bearing the name of The Peoples National Bank of Farmville-fives, tens, twenties, fifties and hundreds were produced.

“They normally did not make the higher denominations for the smaller charters but any note of this type from a small charter, a small town like this, will be very scarce and difficult to obtain,” he explains.

All the National Currency Notes would look just like the one he purchased in Philadelphia, with the exception of the name of the bank.

In a 1948 full-page ad in The History Of Farmville 1798-1948, The Peoples National Bank of Farmville declares itself dedicated to “community service…The future lies ahead…beckoning…offering opportunities to those with the imagination and initiative to grasp them…”

Cabaniss carefully pulls the ten-dollar bill out from a protective clear plastic covering to assist a photograph.

“It's a very interesting note, definitely a piece of Farmville history,” says Cabaniss, who prefers and appreciates the ten-dollar bill's wrinkles and crinkles over pristine untouched bills in mint condition “because people actually used them.”

Cabaniss' own fingers have been added to its story.