Mark Anderson on "Small Town National Banking"

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

MUSEUM OF AMERICAN FINANCE
48 Wall Street | New York, NY 10005
Tel: 212.908.4110 | Fax: 212.908.4601

Originally enacted in the 1860s as a vehicle to assist the Union in financing the Civil War, the National Banking Act was the driving legislation behind over 14,000 banking institutions chartered in the 1861-1935 period. This presentation covers the backstory of one such institution in depth, from the immigrant living the American Dream, to the network of economic activity that provided the capital to start a bank in the early 20th century in the agrarian Midwest, to navigation of the pitfalls of the Great Depression and the bank's ultimate absorption in the consolidation of the 1980s and 1990s. Presentation is richly illustrated with period photographs and numismatic artifacts.

About the Speaker
Mark Anderson has been a numismatic collector since the age of 11. While he would admit to other acquisitive tendencies, such as some coins and stamps, paper money has always been his principal focus. He began collecting when he received, to him, an unusual bill in change on a bus in 1967. Curiosity about the note begat accumulation of others like it, and with time, specialized collections of Spanish, Swedish and United States paper money.

A veteran of commercial banking in the metropolitan New York market, he finds that the lessons of history, particularly economic, political and social, can be learned and illustrated with the stories that paper money tells. “As the worlds of finance and politics evolve at an accelerated pace, the issues and needs remain constants; only the tools are changing.”

Mark has a BA in Economics received from the University of Rochester in 1977, and an MBA in Finance and Accounting awarded by the same school in 1978. He is the president of the Society of Paper Money Collectors, Inc. a 501(c)3 which supports research and education in areas related to financial history and paper money.

He is a recipient of the American Numismatic Association’s President’s Award and Krause Publications’ Numismatic Ambassador Award, as well as various recognitions for exhibits and lecture activities.