5 Dollars New York

The Hungarian Fund notes were issued by Lajos Kossuth's government-in-exile following the failed 1848–49 revolution against Habsburg rule. Kossuth toured the United States in 1851–52 to enormous public enthusiasm, and these dollar-denominated notes were intended to raise funds for a renewed independence campaign — payable, in theory, once a free Hungarian government was restored. They were sold to American sympathizers more as political instruments than as conventional currency.

Bancroft, Hanks & Co. was a respectable New York security printer of the period. Whether the fund ever redeemed a single note is another matter entirely.