National Bond - 500 Dollars

The Fenian Brotherhood's bond issue of 1866–67 was a fundraising instrument aimed at Irish-American communities still radicalized by the Famine diaspora and emboldened by the end of the Civil War — a moment when tens of thousands of battle-hardened Irish veterans were suddenly available and sympathetic. The bonds were sold on the promise of an independent Irish republic, redeemable once that republic was established. It never was.

Continental Bank Note Company, then operating out of New York, produced the printing. The bonds were never honored, rendering them obligations of a government that existed only on paper — which is precisely why collectors treat them as political documents rather than financial instruments.