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Haxby# PA-445-G28 $50 Manual Labor Bank of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Post Note, dated February 14, 1838. Courtesy of PCGS Banknote. Click image to enlarge.

Elvis Aaron Presley, icon and legend, was born January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi, and is 90 years old this year, wherever he is. What many people don’t know about Elvis is, in addition to being “The King of Rock ‘n Roll,” he is also a lord of space and time, with an avid interest in glassmaking.

That’s clearly the explanation for “The Elvis Note,” as issues of the Manual Labor Bank of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, are called, such as this noteworthy note. It carries the denomination of $50 and is dated February 14, 1838. Grading Choice Uncirculated 64PPQ, this note is cataloged as Haxby# PA-445-G28 in James A. Haxby’s Standard Catalog of United States Obsolete Bank Notes 1782-1866, published in 1988 and serving as the classic reference for “broken bank notes.”

The note features the name of the institution at the top center, flanked by its capitalization, $500,000 (equivalent to almost $17,000,000 today, an enormous sum at the time), and how that capital was secured (“...in trust on Real Estate & Publicly Recorded”). Further down is a blank for the time period after which “I promise to pay,” with (an unspecified rate of) interest, $50 at “my banking house” and the address: “N.E. Corner of Second & Race Streets.” (The northeast corner of Second and Race Streets is currently occupied by the Bridge Apartments, a block away from the Delaware Expressway and the Ben Franklin Bridge.) There is a portrait of Benjamin Franklin at the upper right and Thomas W. Dyott at the upper left. The note has a space for the Cashier’s signature at the lower left and appears to be signed by Dyott at the lower right, on a signature space which, strangely, lacks a title.

Thomas W. Dyott was a curious figure. He started in 1803 as an apothecary specializing in patent medicines, the industry famously associated with frauds, shysters, scoundrels, and charlatans. (Those familiar with the story of Elvis might see a parallel between “Doctor” Dyott and “Colonel” Tom Parker, the latter played by Tom Hanks in the 2022 Elvis biopic.) Dyott then expanded into glassmaking, eventually amassing a compound of five factories and 50 other buildings that he named Dyottville (Graceland?). Dyottville included a 300-acre farm, chapel, infirmary and dormitories. A 33-page pamphlet outlined the rules for living at Dyottville, including prohibitions on drinking and cursing, and mandatory regular attendance at church services. Some called it “Temperanceville,” but Elvis, given his 1960 album His Hand in Mine and 1967’s How Great Thou Art, might have approved.

It was when Dyott attempted to expand into banking that things went bad. Perhaps it was the inevitable chicanery of someone who got his start peddling quack medicines. Or perhaps it was the hubris of someone with the temerity to have his portrait placed opposite of and in obvious equivalence to Wise Old Ben, and who signed his notes without a title.

Or maybe, unlike Elvis, the leading edge of a cultural wave, Dyott just had bad timing. Starting a bank in the 1830s, as numismatic collectors of Hard Times Tokens will tell you, was not a very good idea. The Panic of 1837 led to a seven-year-long recession and caused 40% of existing banks to fail. The Manual Labor Bank followed this trend, closing in 1839, just three years after it opened.

Close-up of the central vignette of a period glass manufacturer’s shop floor. Courtesy of PCGS Banknote. Click image to enlarge.

According to Richard T. Hoober’s Pennsylvania Obsolete Notes and Scrip, “Dr. Thomas W. Dyott, who had extensively issued notes…which he did not redeem, was imprisoned for fraud, but was afterward pardoned.” (This note is Hoober# 305-368, although Hoober does not subdivide the Post Notes according to the interest clause.) Dyottville was sold at a sheriff's auction but continued manufacturing glass under the same name.

The changing fortunes of the bank can be seen in the progression of the type of notes issued. The first, Demand Notes, promised to pay “on demand,” or immediately, the face amount to the bearer. At the time, notes were redeemed in “hard money” such as gold or silver. The second type, Interest-Bearing Post Notes (like this noteworthy note), were a kind of promissory note that postponed redemption (and thus having to pay out in hard money the face value) until some future date. Lastly, the Post Notes were modified to remove the promise of interest by striking out the relevant clause in pen. In other words, as the recession deepened, the bank extended the redemption date on its notes and then cheapened the redemption amount.

Why is it called “The Elvis Note”? At the top center of this note, and replicated on the other issues of the Manual Labor Bank (except fractional issues of 5 to 50 cents), is a vignette featuring a period scene of glass manufacturing. A group of individuals are shown arrayed around a furnace while blowing glass, rolling it, and working at the furnace. At the center is a readily recognizable figure, all in white, with a characteristic coiffed hairstyle and emblematic collared outfit.

It’s probably not Elvis, of course. Probably…