MA-17A.

$5

Commercial Bank, Salem

1856

A plausible altered type for the location, but it resembles no genuine notes from the bank (which are very rare). The Commercial Bank of New Jersey, Perth Amboy went broke and thousands of their abandoned notes were altered all over the northeast. Vignette at the center is a graphic whaling scene for the Danforth imprints. “The Whale Fishery-Attacking a Right Whale and Cutting In,” adapted after the painting by Ambrose Louis Garneray, features a large whale spouting with a harpooner in a long boat about to strike, and in the third position of those seated is a black man. In the background there is a ship raising a whale to its deck, while the tryworks on deck smokes.