See Documents, Volume 5, Introduction to Part 5: 5 Oct. 1836–10 Apr. 1837.  

See Historical Introduction to Constitution of the Kirtland Safety Society Bank, 2 Nov. 1836; and Articles of Agreement for the Kirtland Safety Society Anti-Banking Company, 2 Jan. 1837.  

State banking regulations required a bank to have a certain amount of capital—usually from money paid to the bank by stockholders on their stock—before it was allowed to operate; this amount ranged from 5 percent to 20 percent of the bank’s capital stock. This specie reserve allowed the bank to redeem its notes for specie. (Staker, Hearken, O Ye People, 463–482; Marckhoff, “Currency and Banking in Illinois before 1865,” 365–418; see also “A Bill for the Regulation of Banks within This State,” Ohio State Journal and Columbus Gazette, 13 Jan. 1837, [2]; and An Act to Incorporate the State Bank of Ohio and Other Banking Companies [24 Feb. 1845], Acts of a General Nature [1844–1845], p. 27, sec. 8.)  

Staker, Mark L. Hearken, O Ye People: The Historical Setting of Joseph Smith’s Ohio Revelations. Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2009.

Marckhoff, Fred R. “Currency and Banking in Illinois before 1865.” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 52, no. 3 (Autumn 1959): 365–418.

Ohio State Journal and Columbus Gazette. Columbus. 1825–1837.

Acts of a General Nature Passed by the Forty Third General Assembly of the State of Ohio, Begun and Held in the City of Columbus, December 4, 1844, and in the Forty Third Year of Said State. Columbus: Samuel Medary, 1845.

See Kirtland Safety Society, Stock Ledger, 1836–1837. The $12,000 came from payments on stock subscriptions. The stock ledger recorded these payments as being made in “cash,” which in nineteenth-century banking and accounting terminology could mean either specie or banknotes. (Coffin, Progressive Exercises in Book Keeping, 10–39, 77.)  

Coffin, James H. Progressive Exercises in Book Keeping, by Single and Double Entry. Greenfield, MA: A. Phelps, 1836.

For more information on the structure and funding challenges of the Kirtland Safety Society, see Documents, Volume 5, Introduction to Part 5: 5 Oct. 1836–10 Apr. 1837. Reynolds Cahoon took out a loan for $1,200 on 10 January 1837 that may also have been intended to supplement the specie reserves of the Kirtland Safety Society. ([Reynolds Cahoon et al.], Cleveland, OH, to Commercial Bank of Lake Erie, Promissory Note, 10 Jan. 1837, JS Collection, CHL.)  

Smith, Joseph. Collection, 1827–1846. CHL. MS 155.

Transcript of Proceedings, ca. 6 June 1837 [Bank of Geauga v. JS et al.].  

Docket Entry, Costs, ca. 6 June 1837 [Bank of Geauga v. JS et al.].