Mary--Thank you very much for a fascinating tour of some banking history. You convince me, but then what you say is very close to what I tell my students anyway about the use of bank notes, state-issued paper money, the constitution, etc. (Using, I might add, Mary's work as one of the sources, along with the "dated" Bray Hammond whose discussion of the 2nd Bank is, in my view, still superior to that of Temin who confuses central banks of the 20th century with emerging central banks in an earlier and quite different time.) At the same time it still seems to me that the possibly imaginary Philadelphian could be said to have been expressing a reasonable view in Philadelphia throughout much of the early 19th century. In Philadelphia, when bank notes were not in such common use, as well as later, when they were, there must have been great pressure not to demand specie when specie was perceived to be in inadequate supply locally. Directly economic pressure if you were a stockholder because even if you know that such stuff happens you would still rather avoid it, and indirect pressure if you owe money to stockholders because you wouldn't want to be the trigger for a run. Perhaps I am missing something. I will save and ponder Mary's message at some point when my brain is fresher. Happy weekend. Anne Mayhew 1101 McClung Tower University of Tennessee Knoxville, TN 37996-0411 PH: 615-974-1689; FAX: 615-974-3915; E-MAIL: [log in to unmask]