Reader’s Showcase: August 2023

The First National Bank in Fort Kent is Maine’s only 14,000-charter bank. Those banks remain very popular among collectors because they represent the last of the note-issuing banks. 2,916 type 2 $10 were emitted from it, of which about ten have turned up. Fort Kent faces New Brunswick across the St. John River, which serves as much of the northern border of Maine. Another appeal of the note is Fort in the town name. Fort Kent was erected by the U.S. Army in October 1839 as a border outpost during the undeclared Aroostook War, which was a festering border dispute between the U.S. and Great Britain in which various Maine and New Brunswick militias faced off as both postured for possession of the rich timberland in that remote region. The fort was named for Edward Kent, then governor of Maine. The dispute was settled by the (Danial) Webster–(Baron) Ashburton Treaty of 1842, which fixed the border along the St. John River. U.S. Highway 1, which follows the east coast from Key West, Florida to Maine, hooks significantly westward into the continent along the south bank of the St. John River to the highway’s northern terminate at Fort Kent. Aroostook County remains one of the least populated counties in the United States. Maine collector Carol Dickson has avidly collected notes from the few banks there, including this beauty.