| American Banknote Corporation | |
| Former Name: | American Bank Note Company |
| Trade Name: | ABCorp |
| Industry: | Manufacturing, Finance, Printing |
| Foundation: | 1795 |
| Location: | Boston, Massachusetts |
| Key People: | William J. Brown, CEO |
American Banknote Corporation (formerly American Bank Note Company), trading as ABCorp, is an American corporation providing contract manufacturing and related services to the authentication, payment and secure access business sectors. Its history dates back to 1795 as a secure engraver and printer, and assisting the newly formed First Bank of the United States to design and produce more counterfeit resistant currency. The company has facilities in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
In 1795, Robert Scot, the first official engraver of the U.S. Mint, founded Murray, Draper, Fairman & Company (spelled Fairham in some sources),[1] which was named for Scot's three partners. Its products included stock and bond certificates, paper currency for the nation's thousands of state-chartered banks, postage stamps (from 1879 to 1894), and a wide variety of other engraved and printed items.
On April 29, 1858, following the Panic of 1857, seven prominent security printers merged to form the American Bank Note Company. The new company made New York City its headquarters. Less than two years later, the remaining handful of independent bank note printers merged to form the National Bank Note Company.
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 Building at 55 Wall Street in Manhattan. The company moved its office and plant to 142 Broadway (at the corner of Liberty Street) in 1867, to another new facility at 78–86 Trinity Place in 1882, and again to 70 Broad Street in 1908.
The first federally issued paper currency was circulated by the US Treasury Department following the outbreak of the American Civil War. Congress passed authorizing legislation for $60 million worth of these "Demand Notes" on July 17 and August 5, 1861. Under contract with the government, 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, ABN sought a new business abroad. The company eventually supplied security paper and bank notes to 115 foreign countries.[2]
National Bank Note Company (1861-73) merged into ABN in 1873.
In 1877 Congress mandated that the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing be the sole producer of all United States currency. The security printing industry, finding a good deal of its work had evaporated, accordingly underwent a second major consolidation in 1879 and ABN absorbed Continental Bank Note companies in that year. At the time of the merger, Continental held the contract to produce U. S. Postage stamps, and this production continued under ABN.
In 1887, ABN 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 Company produced these notes during the first contract period.) ABN 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, Massachusetts.
In 1891, ABN 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, ABN completed the final contract for the private printing of U.S. Postage 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.
In 1933, the company printed the second series of Bank Melli Iran banknotes.
In 1943, the U.S. Post Office launched a series of thirteen stamps honoring the countries that had been overrun by the Axis during World War II. Each stamp featured a full-color reproduction of the flag of each of the occupied nations. While the Bureau of Engraving and Printing had previously issued bi-colored stamps, it did not have equipment for printing the necessary multi-colored flag images; and so, contracted with ABN to produce the stamps. Issued between June 1943 and November 1944, the Overrun Countries series reproduced the flags of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Norway, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Greece, Yugoslavia, Albania, Austria, Denmark, and Korea,[3]
ABCorp is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, with North American manufacturing facilities located in Boston, Massachusetts and Toronto, Ontario, and distribution services located in Columbia, Tennessee. The company maintains international facilities in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia and Auckland, New Zealand.
The American Bank Note Company Building and American Bank Note Company Printing Plant were both built in 1908 and are both designated New York City Landmarks. The former is also listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. The buildings were sold in 1988 and 1985, respectively.