Thompson's Bank Note Reporter

Thompson's Bank Note Reporter was a periodical published in New York City by John Thompson beginning in 1842. As a bank note reporter, its main purpose was to convey information about the notes issued by each of the hundreds of different banks operating in North America at the time, including the discounts at which their notes traded, and descriptions of counterfeits currently in circulation. Thompson's was considered the pre-eminent bank reporter in the country, and, as of 1855, claimed a circulation of 100,000, higher than any of its competitors.^[1]

Thompson's offered the following subscription options:^[2]:239

• Twice-weekly for $5 per year^[2]:239
• Weekly for $3^[2]:239[3]
• Twice-monthly for $2^[2]:239[3]
• Monthly for $1^[3]

The publication's audience included bankers and merchants ranging from New York City to the western states.^{[2]:239–240} One Wisconsin banker recalled that "the merchant in his store or the peddler on the prairies would as soon think of doing their business without scales, measure, or yardstick as without a Thompson's, or some other bank note reporter of recent date".^[1]

The front page of the reporter typically contained a small number of editorials and breaking financial news.^[2]:240 The remainder of the publication mostly consisted of an exhaustive listing of banks, organized by state. For each bank, the reporter would generally include:

• The discount at which its notes traded, as a percentage. For example, the figure "1⁄2" would mean that a $1 note from that bank was trading for 99.5 cents worth of gold.^[4]:77
• Descriptions of any counterfeits of the bank's bills currently in circulation
• The name of the bank's president and cashier^[1]

Furthermore, some banks would be marked as closed or fraudulent, indicating to the reader that their bills were worthless. Others were annotated as being likely to fail.

The reporter sometimes included facsimiles of counterfeit plates which were considered especially dangerous.^[3]

Thompson's was published from Wall Street in New York City. Its founder, John Thompson, had been working as a bill broker there since 1832, previously having worked dealing lottery tickets.^[1]

The first issue of the reporter was published in 1842.^[a] A notice in the New-York American on December 31, 1841 announced it as "a new Weekly Paper, under the title of Thompson's Bank Reporter, in pamphlet form, containing sixteen pages" to be issued beginning January 4, 1842. At the time of its debut, there were two other noteworthy existing bank note reporters being published in the city, one of them by Archibald McIntyre.^[1]

Initially announced as a weekly paper to be issued on Saturdays, by March 1842, it was being published twice-weekly, on Wednesdays and Saturdays.^[1]

At some point before 1849, the reporter was renamed The Bank Note & Commercial Reporter. By 1858, it was circulating under the title Thompson's Bank Note and Commercial Reporter.^[1]

By 1866, as the free banking era came to a close, the traditional function of bank reporters became obsolete, and Thompson's character shifted toward that of a "bank directory".^[1]

In 1876, a bank note reporter published from 1864 by L. Mendelson as the National Bank Note Reporter (and later as The National Bank Note Reporter and Financial Gazette) was merged with Thompson's.^[1]

Final years

Thompson's reporter seems to have ceased publication around 1884 or 1885, though accounts of this time are conflicting.

En julio de 1884, el New York Times publicó un reportaje que destapaba una trama de chantaje a gran escala en la que los editores de Thompson's Reporter llevaban años enviando cartas a bancos de todo el país solicitando el pago de suscripciones o anuncios en el periódico, amenazando con calificarlos negativamente si no accedían. Según el Times , si bien Thompson's Reporter , bajo la dirección de John Thompson, había sido "pionero en su género periodístico" y "una guía de referencia en el sector", Thompson había vendido el periódico unos 20 años antes, y este había cambiado de manos varias veces. Se desconocía la identidad del propietario actual, pero se rumoreaba que era un tal "LP Haver" (en artículos posteriores, mencionado indistintamente como "Lewis" o "Louis" P. Haver). Un reportero del Times encontró a Haver en las oficinas del Reporter , donde negó rotundamente las acusaciones de chantaje y acusó a los bancos denunciantes de intentar evadir el pago de sus facturas. ^{[ 7 ]} El Times publicó varias actualizaciones en 1884, detallando más acusaciones de mala conducta, y el 17 de agosto de 1884, informó que Haver y otro gerente de Thompson's Reporter , JE Callinan, habían sido acusados ​​de cargos de chantaje. ^{[ 8 ]} Finalmente, Haver fue declarado culpable de un delito menor y, en octubre de 1885, un juez le impuso una multa de 500 dólares; se libró de una pena de prisión en vista de su acuerdo de retirarse de la publicación del periódico. ^{[ 9 ]}

According to a profile of Charles David Steurer in the 1896 biographical compilation Men of the Century, an Historical Work, the facility at which Thompson's was printed was destroyed in a fire in 1884. (The 1884 New York Times blackmail exposé states that the paper had previously been located at the original headquarters of the New York World at 37 Park Row—now the site of the Potter Building—until it burned down in 1882, causing $1,500 of damages for Thompson's.) It goes on to state that Steurer, who had been managing the printing of Thompson's at the time, formed the publishing house Stumpf & Steurer with friend Anthony Stumpf in 1855, and began publishing a new bank directory similar to Thompson's under the title The American Bank Reporter. At the same time, they also established a weekly financial newspaper, The American Banker.^[10]

As of 1887, an advertisement by "Anthony Stumpf & Co., Publishers" described The American Bank Reporter as being "Formerly Thompsons & Underwoods Bank Reporters, (Consolidated.)", with The American Banker described as "a 24 page weekly financial journal published in connection with" the Reporter.^[11]

American Banker, which continued in print into the 21st century, has been regarded as a successor to Thompson's Bank Reporter.^[5][12]

Thompson also published a bank note list, Thompson's Bank Note Descriptive List, which was offered for free to annual subscribers. The list was updated at irregular intervals, and by 1865 26 revised editions had been published.^[3]

A collection of facsimiles of hundreds of gold and silver coins in circulation, The Coin Chart Manual, was published as a supplement to Thompson's reporter as early as 1848, and continuing until at least 1877. It was also offered for free to annual subscribers to the reporter, with standalone copies sold for 12.5 cents.^[1]