From: lessgovt@gmail.com   
      
   Robert Scot, the first official engraver of the young U.S. Mint, began the   
   company that would eventually grow into a high security engraving and printing   
   firm, the American Bank Note Co.   
      
   Founded in 1795 as Murray, Draper, Fairman & Co. after Scot's 3 partners, the   
   company prospered as U.S. population expanded and financial institutions   
   proliferated. Its products included stock and bond certificates, paper   
   currency for the nation's    
   thousands of state-chartered banks, postage stamps (from 1879-1894), and a   
   wide variety of other engraved and printed items. Two security printers   
   absorbed into the ABN in 1879 produced U. S. Postage stamps between 1861 and   
   that year: the National Bank    
   Note Co. (1861-73) and the Continental Banknote Co. (1873-79).   
      
   On April 29, 1858, following the Panic of 1857, seven prominent security   
   printers merged to form the American Bank Note Co. The new company made New   
   York City its HQ. Less than two years later, the remaining handful of   
   independent bank note printers    
   merged to form the National Bank Note Co.   
      
   To be close to the stock exchanges, brokerage firms, and banks in lower   
   Manhattan, the American Bank Note Company established its headquarters in the   
   Merchants Exchange Bldg at 55 Wall St. in Manhattan. The company moved its   
   office and plant to 142    
   Broadway (at the corner of Liberty St.) in 1867, to another new facility at   
   78–86 Trinity Place in 1882, and again to 70 Broad St. in 1908.   
      
   The first federally issued paper currency was circulated by the US Treasury   
   Dept following the outbreak of the Civil War. Congress passed authorizing   
   legislation for $60 million worth of these "Demand Notes" on July 17 and Aug.   
   5, 1861. Under contract    
   with the govt, the novel paper money, called "greenbacks" by the public, was   
   produced by the American Bank Note Co. and the National Bank Note Co. A total   
   of 7.25 million notes were produced in denominations of $5, $10, and $20.   
   American and National    
   were also producing paper money for the Confederacy at the same time.   
      
   Following the initial production of U.S. currency by the government's Bureau   
   of Engraving and Printing in 1862, ABNCo sought a new business abroad. The   
   company eventually supplied security paper and bank notes to 115 foreign   
   countries.   
      
   In 1877 Congress mandated that the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing be   
   the sole producer of all U.S. currency. The security printing industry,   
   finding a good deal of its work had evaporated, accordingly underwent a second   
   major consolidation in 1879,   
    as American absorbed the National Bank Note and Continental Bank Note   
   companies. At the time of the merger, Continental held the contract to produce   
   U.S. Postage stamps, and this production continued under American.   
      
   In 1887, ABNCo won the second four-year contract to engrave and print postal   
   notes for the U.S. post office. (New York's Homer Lee Bank Note Co. produced   
   these notes during the first contract period.) American assigned Thomas F.   
   Morris, its Chief    
   Designer, the task of re-designing this early money order. The paper for this   
   contract (as for all Postal Notes and a massive number of official U.S. high   
   security documents) was produced by Crane and Co. of Dalton, Mass.   
      
   In 1891 the American Bank Note Co. began producing a new form of negotiable   
   instrument for a longtime customer: the American Express “Traveler's   
   Cheque” demand notes. In its first year, American Express sold $9,120 worth   
   the product.   
      
   In 1894, ABNCo completed the final contract for the private printing of   
   American stamps. Perhaps the most popular were the Columbian Issue, one cent   
   to $5 issues commemorating the voyages of Christopher Columbus and the   
   1892–93 Columbian Exposition in    
   Chicago (for which they also printed the admission tickets). On July 1, 1894,   
   American delivered its entire stamp-producing operation to the U.S. Bureau of   
   Engraving and Printing in Washington, D.C., where U.S. stamps were still   
   printed up into the 1990s.   
      
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABCorp   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)