19th Century Apothecaries, Druggists, and Drug Store Currency – Part 2

Welcome to the second article on drug stores and medicine-themed currency. In this article, we will present privately issued scrip and currency that were essentially advertising notes for a specific form of medication.

We will focus on notes that were marketing “medicines,” or quack medicines with dubious origins, sold to a gullible public. The description of the ailments is often vague; terms like “blood purifier,” which is supposedly a cleansing of the blood, is a notable example. Often, they contained opiates and alcohol and were more of a masking agent than a cure. In the final section of this article, there is encased postage advertising various drugs.

The Treasury began issuing currency in 1862 (coins had been produced since 1792), so all circulating currency was issued by municipalities, banks, and private businesses. By the mid-1800s, drug production was primarily based on natural products. Synthetic chemicals were uncommon (ether and chloroform were exceptions). Many pharmacists still compounded their own medicines from a botanical or mineral base. The application of drugs was based on trial and error, mixed in with hope and a lot of uncertainty, since there was no federal regulatory standard that druggists followed.

Medicines were produced in a variety of dosage forms, depending on the active ingredient, the purpose of the medication, and how the patient would take it. Druggists had many different tools in their shops to produce medicines, ranging from a mortar and pestle or a pill cutter to more complex machinery that cut, heated, or pressed ingredients into different forms. Common dosage forms throughout the 1800s were imbibed, like powders (alongside wafers and cachets to make them more palatable), pills, tablets, gelatin capsules, pastilles, lozenges, mixtures, tinctures, tonics, and emulsions. Ointments, lotions, and plasters were applied externally, while enemas, suppositories, pessaries, and inhalations were all intended to be taken via the bodily orifice.

(Left/Right) At first glance, this appears to be a State of Missouri obsolete $1 note. A closer look at the face shows it is from the laboratory of Dr. J.H. McLean. On the back, it reveals to be an advertising note for McLean’s Strengthening Cordial and Blood Purifier. McLean’s Purifier was so successful that he employed an international sales force and operated fleets of wagons, ships, and railroad cars to facilitate their distribution. McLean was a doctor and served a term in Congress in 1882.

(Top/Bottom) Confederate facsimile note (T-68) advertising Dr. Lawrence Cough Balsam. A balsam is an aromatic resinous substance, such as balm, used as a base for certain fragrances and medical and cosmetic preparations.

The various ingredients to make these medicines were kept by the pharmacist or chemist-druggist in apothecary jars in their shop so they could prepare mixtures on demand. Remedies used in the 19th century included both quack potions to legitimate treatments:

A well-designed advertising note from the Centaur Bank of New York City. The note has no real value and is not a real bank; they sold bottles of liniment. White was for family use and yellow for horses and animals. This liniment claimed to offer “wonderful cures.” There are images of centaurs (half man/half horse), and also, in the upper right, an image of a plant suggesting the liniment is from a natural source.

(Front/Back) Circa 1870s Dr. Flint's Quaker Bitters $500 advertising note proclaiming, “The Great Blood Purifier.” The Flint family was in the furniture and upholstery business in Providence, Rhode Island, during the Civil War. In 1865, they began to produce medicines; the note above was for Quaker Bitters. The image of Dr. Flint is in the center, to the left is a Quaker, and to the right is the allegorical image of Columbia. There is a pseudo-red seal to the left of Columbia that is inscribed with, “QUAKER BITTERS.”

G.W. Southwick “100” The South American Fever and Ague Remedy advertising note from New York City. Ague is an old-time term for malaria and also for chills and fever in the 19th century. The center vignette depicts workers presumably extracting tree bark for a cure

Loveridge Wahoo Bitters $100 advertising note 1863 from Buffalo, New York. Under the image of E. Dexter Loveridge is a deceptive tie-in to “The Wahoo Bank.” Bitters are flavored extracts made from botanicals that were originally developed as medicinal tonics. A Native American couple, armed with bows and arrows, is featured.

A 25¢ undated merchant note from The Kathairon Bank of New York City. Not an actual bank, but a hair tonic that claims to prevent dandruff, hair loss, and scalp coolness. Emanuel Thomas Lyon, a Princeton College-trained chemist, created this tonic in the early 1850s. The ad card is for Kathairon.

(Left) Undated 50¢ merchant note from the Mustang Bank in New York City advertising Mexican Mustang Linament. The liniment was created by Dr. A.G. Bragg in St. Louis in the early 1850s. It was essentially a salve to ease the pain of physical labor. The primary ingredient was crude petroleum oil, combined with other compounds such as olive oil and ammonia carbonate. (Right) Undated $500 note from Combs and Wilson for National Indian Compound. A purported cure for coughs, colds, consumption (tuberculosis), and respiratory ailments. An Indian warrior and maiden appear on the note.

Front/back of a $100 ad note for the S-PH-L-S Bank for a bottle of Dr. Oliver Crooks syphilitic remedy. Dr. Crooks seems aptly named since the cure for syphilis didn’t come until the invention of antibiotics in 1928. On the bottom left is an image of a workman tending to his horse while his dog looks on. The center vignette shows three mermaids frolicking in the sea while an angel looks on. On the right, a thoughtful woman, presumably a nurse, gazes towards the horizon.

(Left) Front/back of a Royal Lansing (R.L.) Woolcott ad note for Wolcott’s Pain Paint and Wolcott’s Annihilator. They claim this will treat catarrh, a mucus buildup in the nose, throat, and/or sinuses. An allegorical image of a lady carrying the medicine is confronted by a dagger-bearing devil.

September 1st, 1865, 292 ad note for a bottle of John Roots Bitters of Buffalo, New York. Bitters, despite being marketed as medicinal, often contained high alcohol content and various herbs to treat digestive and other physical ailments.

(Top) Front/back of 77 United Stands Dingens Napoleon Bitters. Dingens claims on the back that the ad note is legal tender, but no amount is stated. The image of Napoleon is in the upper left. (Left) 1862 $1 legal tender note (Fr. 16). The Dingens note design, with a faux red seal, borrows heavily on the Federally-issued note.

(Left) Undated $100 Romaine’s Crimean Bitters ad note from the Crimean Bank of New York City. Many of the medicine notes associate themselves with a foreign region. In this case, it is Crimea (an island off the coast of Ukraine in the Black Sea). The vignette in the center may be a Crimean castle. (Right) Undated 25¢ note from Dr. Terrel’s Healing Ointment. The ointment claims to treat various skin conditions. The note has sea-themed images.

(Left) Undated 25¢ merchant note for Dr. Barker’s Tar Syrup of Williamsburgh. Tar syrup is derived from the resinous sap of trees. It was used to treat various respiratory ailments. A crude image of George Washington is on the left, a speeding train is the central image, and a mortar and pestle are on the right.

(Left) 10¢ Washington stamp with a Drake’s Plantation Bitters ad. (Center) 1¢ Franklin stamp with a back advertising French Cognac Bitters. (Right) 5¢ Jefferson stamp advertising Burnett’s Cocaine Kalliston. Burnett’s was a popular hair tonic made from coconut oil.

(Left)1¢ Franklin stamp advertising B.F. Miles of Peoria, a dealer of drugs, paints, oils, and glass blocks. (Center) 12¢ Washington stamp with an advertisement for Ayer’s Sarsaparilla, a tonic to purify the blood. (Right) 1¢ Franklin stamp advertising Ayer’s Cathartic Pills, which were used as laxatives.

This concludes the two-part series on notes and encased postage with a theme of drug stores, druggists, apothecaries, and medicines. In reviewing all the notes, we have a clearer understanding of how doctors, drug makers, and drug stores marketed their products.

Modern medicine has sure come a long way.

Thanks to Stack’s Bowers and Heritage Auctions for the photographs used in this article.

To read part one, click the link below.

19th Century Apothecaries, Druggists, and Drug Store Currency– Part 1