Tis the Season to be Jolly, and nothing is more “Jolly” then looking at an old obsolete note depicting a vignette of Santa Claus. Roger Durand’s, “Interesting Notes About Christmas,” released in 1993 has a comprehensive listing of the known Santa’s, along with the seven known vignettes (that the Santa is depicted on). From the Ming Dynasty notes to the current Federal Reserve Notes, and all the other notes issued in all the countries, we don’t think that any of them compare to the beauty of a Santa Claus vignetted note.

Santa Clause depicted on notes started on Christmas Eve in 1822 when Clement C. Moore read a poem he composed for his children which started with, “Twas the night before Christmas,” and ended with, “Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night.” His children were so excited that they had him read it two more times. The Poem was published anonymously by the Troy NY Sentinel in 1823, and it wasn’t until 1837 that Moore took credit for it.

In 1837 Robert Weir, who was inspired by Moore’s poem, drew a depiction of Santa Claus. It showed Santa at a fire place with a bag over his shoulder and two socks hanging down. Without the Moore poem, which inspired Weir, we probably wouldn’t have Santa depicted on the obsolete notes.

These wonderfully vignetted notes were issued by banks in the middle 1800’s. They were engraved by some of our best engraving companies at the time. Banks probably figured that customers would love them and they would bring in more business.

Until the sale of the American Bank Note Co. archives by Christie’s in 1990, finding nice vignetted Santa Claus notes was very hard. This sale had proof sheets of notes that had Santa depicted on at least one of the four subject sheet. Just prior to this sale in the late 1980’s, we purchased the George Wait collection of Santa Claus notes and vignettes. That was the start of our love affair with these wonderful obsolete notes.

Our collection contains at least one obsolete note, of the seven known vignettes that depict Santa. Our collection contains six of the seven listed (in Durand reference) Santa Claus Vignettes. No type 7 vignetted note or vignette has ever appeared, though they are known on the $20 and $50 Saint Nicholas Bank which is (SENC) Surviving Examples Not Confirmed.