wildcat note

plural wildcat notes

1. One of the notes printed by a bank issuing wildcat money.

   We were worse off than under the State bank wildcat note plan of currency.

   1899 September, J,M. Girdner, “Greenbacks are an Imitation of Coined Money”, in Money, volume 3, number 3, page 79

   2 more examples

   Whether it is difficult or not for the business world to see why a Federal Reserve is better than a National Banking system, as was a national bank note better than an unclassified wildcat note, still the fittest will survive.

   1918 November, Park Mathewson, “Budget Principles for the Bank”, in The Burroughs Clearing House, volume 3, number 2, page 27

   Although not stated explicitly, the point of the discussion appears to be the conditions under which wildcat note issues were profitable.

   2015, Forrest Capie, Geoffrey E. Wood, Unregulated Banking: Chaos or Order?, page 128