TUCSON  Arizona 

Safford, Hudson & Co.  Bankers

Mexican Silver receipt 

$20        1870s - 1880s

Crisp remainder

~ 13 X 3 1/2 inches

Safford, Hudson & Co. was among the most prominent private banking firms operating in Tucson during Arizona’s territorial period, when formal banking regulation was minimal and hard money dominated daily commerce. This receipt documents a $20 deposit in Mexican silver, the principal circulating medium in the Southwest well into the late nineteenth century. Rather than a banknote, it functioned as a safekeeping acknowledgment, redeemable on demand upon surrender of the document. Printed by A.L. Bancroft & Co. of San Francisco, a leading Western job printer, the piece reflects the professionalization of frontier finance. Unissued examples such as this are scarce survivals, valued for their connection to early Arizona banking, cross‑border silver circulation, and the economic realities of the territorial Southwest.

Private bank safekeeping!

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