“The bank note reporters universally reflected merely the cost of collecting the national banks’ dollars and returning them to their region.”
That was hardly the sole factor addressed by banknote reporters as the following illustrate:
Shinplasters out West
Menasha, Wis., Nov.1,1852 - P. S.-This section of the State is flooded with shinplasters and unsecured money. The METROPOLITAN, (D. C.,) took the lead; CHARLOTTETOWN followed, and the MECHANICS of Georgetown, D. C., is now in the field to a great extent.
A SUBSCRIBER
There is no excuse for taking such trash, even in Wisconsin, for the Western States are fast supplying their own wants by a SAFE, WELL-SECURED, LEGAL CURRENCY.-Public opinion has fairly banished it from this section of the country.
http://www.americanbanker.com/175/1852/#year
1864
From Thompson’s Bank Note Reporter
Jan. 23 - Explanation of marks, &c.: A star (*) [means] that Thompson Bros. do not buy the notes.
...See the advertisement of the Receiver of the Washington County Bank, R. I. This concern was shaped for a great swindle, and but for our starring the Bank last summer, the rascals would have succeeded...Large amounts of these notes are in the hands of parties (accomplices) who will try to work them off. Don’t touch them. There were $700,000 of the notes of this Bank printed for circulation last summer. This was enough for us.
http://www.americanbanker.com/175/1864/#year
You are showing a fundamental lack of understanding of any of this.
Shinplasters were NOT National Bank Notes. They were specifically “free bank notes” also known as “wildcat” bank notes. In specific states, particularly Wisconsin and Michigan, “free banks” (named for their charters under free banking laws) saw some shady characters establish branches to redeem their notes “where a wildcat wouldn’t go.” The purpose was to make it impossible to redeem these notes, which also came to be called “shinplasters.” I have never seen a CHARTERED BANK’S notes referred to as “shinplasters,” and certainly not National Bank Notes.
Now, when someone says the “State is flooded with shinplasters and unsecured money,” such wildcat banks were supposedly secured by bonds that they put on deposit with the Secretary of State. However, as the value of the bonds fell (which they often did), the SoS could not sell them for par value and repay noteholders.
THIS IS NOT COUNTERFEITING. This is fraud perpetrated by the bankers themselves.