Congress, by an act approved August 13, 1894, has provided that "circulating notes of national banking associations and United States legal tender notes, and other notes and certificates of the United States, payable on demand, and circulating or intended to circulate, as currency . . . shall be subject to [state] taxation as money on hand or on deposit." In Hibernia Savings and Loan Society v. San Francisco30 the Supreme Court held that notwithstanding the act of Congress of 186237 declaring that "all stocks, bonds, treasury notes, and other obligations of the United States shall be exempt from taxation by or under state or municipal or local authority," certain United States treasury checks for interest accrued upon registered bonds of the United States, where intended for immediate payment of interest, might be taxed by a State in the hands of the owner. "Had the government [of the United States]," said the court, "in the absence of money for the immediate payment of interest upon its bonds, issued new obligations for the payment of this interest at a future day, it might well be claimed that these were not taxable, as the taxation of such notes would, to the extent of the tax, impair their value and negotiability in the hands of the holder. . . . But where the checks are issued payable immediately, they merely stand in the place of coin, which may be immediately drawn thereon. . . . While the checks are obligations of the United States, and within the letter of Sec. 3701, they are not within its spirit, and are proper subjects of taxation."

34 Bank of Kentucky v. Com. (4 Bush, 48).

35 Pollock v. Farmers' Loan and Trust Co. (157 U. S. 429; 15 Sup. Ct. Rep. 673; 39 L. ed. 759).

36200 U. S. 310; 26 Sup. Ct. Rep. 265; 50 L. ed. 495. 37 Rev. Stat., § 3701.