Today's note is a very unusual note.... Read on.

Some 20 years ago an American investment banker, named Price, came up with the idea of the Afro-American Face Reserve Organization ( AFRO ) with its very own banknotes. The money was to be used to improve the status of the black community by increasing its purchasing power. Price expected that some $100 million spent monthly in these AFRO notes could raise about $10 million for a trust fund, which would in turn provide income for housing, educational opportunities and venture capital, all for Afro - Americans.

The idea was that banks, stores etc. would accept these notes and that the community was to patronize only these establishments. The organizers of this currency went so far as to clear this all with the American Secret Service (a branch of the Treasury Department).

This 20 Dollar note is serially numbered ( although you may not receive exactly the same serial number as pictured )and printed in the standard Afro-American colors of red, green & black. The central portrait of Frederick Doulgass* is flanked by an American eagle and the Douglass signature. And unlike play notes, these say that they are "redeemable at participating banks". The reverse depicts the Douglass home in Washington, D.C.

Frederick Douglass (1817 - 1895), American abolitionist, orator, and writer, who escaped slavery and urged other blacks to do likewise before and during the American Civil War (1861 - 1865). He was born in Tuckahoe, Maryland, the son of a slave. In 1838 Douglass escaped slavery and reached New Bedford, Massachusetts. Following an antislavery convention in 1841, he became an agent of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. His work for the 'Underground Railroad', a network that helped slaves escape to free areas, did much to further the cause of the abolitionists and made his name a symbol of freedom. In 1845 Douglass went to England to escape the danger of seizure under the Fugitive Slave Laws. His lectures on the question of slavery in the United States prompted his admirers to raise funds to purchase his freedom. After returning to the United States in 1847, Douglass became the leader of the Underground Railroad in Rochester, New York. There he established the abolitionist newspaper North Star, which he edited until 1860. During the presidential election of 1860 Douglass campaigned for Abraham Lincoln. Following the outbreak of the American Civil War (1861 - 1865) , he helped raise two regiments of black soldiers. After the war, Douglass fought for enactment of the 13th , 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution of the United States He later served in governmental positions, including U.S. minister to Haiti (1889 - 1891).