1868 $50,000 Document With R89c And R96c Pair

I bought this in December but due to trip to the US and scanner problems with my upgraded OS, I finally took a photo with my wife's iPod and manage to get to this size.

It was a lot of money for 1868. Written out to "Myself", it appears to have been cashed by WH Foster.

It appears to be a Promissory Note in the amount of $50,000 ($50K not $50M). Still a significant sum back in 1868. In fact, one inflation calculator suggests it would be the equivalent of nearly $850,000 in today's dollars.

Thanks wt1, I had not thought of Promissory Note. I was using the M from Roman numerals which indicates 1,000. K of course also means 1,000 in metric units

Nice document, finding $5 and $10 stamps still on the document is not so easy anymore, there is a tendency to soak them off. And it's always nice to find a pair. The tax rate for a promissory note in 1868 was 5 cents for the first $100 and 5 cents for each additional $100 or fraction, so $25 was the correct tax.

Thanks revcollector. I had not known the tax rate so that info is welcome. It also seems the the use a particular revenue was somewhat arbitrary since there are two different ones on the document. Would you be so kind as to answer three questions: How common are embossed cancels? What effect do they have on value? Are silk threads ever visible on the face of a stamp?

Any info on WH foster? The sum is alot but what would explain a 50k promisary note to oneself .

Some of the reasons that ocurred to me about what this could be are:

Proof that the bearer has these funds available, if arranging for a purchase of property or investment in a business.

A clandestine way to pass funds to someone without indicating who that person is.

A way to travel with a large sum of money without risking it being stolen.

Those are some of my thoughts and questions as well. I wonder if it was normal practice to write over the name of the writer of the note with what looks to be a chain of the letter "u". The writer's (Myself) first two initials are D J but his/her last name is difficult to decipher. I can only make out several letters. The first letter is a strange one in that the downward stroke of the arching line over the entire last name might actually be part of the the letter. Then I can make out possibly an "i" and an "a" followed by what appear to be two "t"s crossed by the long horizontal line that passes through the entire name. And of the last one or two letters, one is definitely an "i" because I can make out the dot over it.

Embossed cancels are fairly common, although a nice impression of a fancy example on a document is a nice thing to have.
How they affect value depends on several factors. Does the cancel break the paper? Is it a partial off a document, or a complete cancel on a document? Is the stamp a relatively scarce one, or a common variety? There is no hard and fast answer here.
As for silk paper, it depends on which issue we are discussing. First issue and match and medicine experimental silk paper threads MIGHT be visible on the front. Or they might not. Second issue, third issue, and proprietary silk papers have a lot of silk and it is easily visible from either side.