About the Collection
The Rowe-Barr Collection of Texas Currency contains thousands of notes, scrip, bonds, and other financial obligations, issued in Texas between the 1820s and 1935. The collection was donated by John N. Rowe III (1936-2023) and B.B. Barr, who were brothers-in-law, business partners, and advocates for historical preservation. The Rowe-Barr currency collection offers an interesting avenue of access to life in Texas from the early days of its independence from Mexico through the years of the Great Depression. Issued by more than 100 counties, as well as banks, merchants, and private individuals, these notes were most often redeemable for cash but sometimes for land or shares of stock.
The collection includes currency from significant historical eras, including the Republic of Texas (1836-1845), early statehood (1845-1861), the Confederacy (1861-1865), and the National Bank Era (1863-1913). Among the more famous signatures on the notes are those of Sam Houston, Mirabeau B. Lamar, David G. Burnet, Asa Brigham, Francis R. Lubbock, John Wyatt Moody, and Green DeWitt. Designs on the notes range from simple to quite elaborate and decorative.
The record for each currency note captures the note’s important features. They are searchable by decade, county of origin, town of issue, bank issuer, and denomination, as well as by individual keywords. The bank notes are assigned a rarity number ranked from 1 (least rare) to 7 (rarest). The rarity of a note is indicated by the letter “R” and the corresponding rarity number, for example, R.5. There are occasional references to Medlar or Bieciuk and Corbin (BC), authors respectively of "Texas Obsolete Notes and Scrip" and "Texas Confederate County Notes and Private Scrip." Reference to these resources is indicated in the Notes field by either “Medlar” and a page number or “BC” and a page number.