Founded in 1913, open in 1914: dating an institution properly

Institutions carry a legal founding date and an operational one. For the United States central-banking system the first is quoted constantly; the second is recorded in the system's own history service, in one member bank's history, and in a Treasury press announcement written the evening before.

This note sets out the question as published, the fixed answer, every source that was opened, and the searches that exposed the answer and forced the wording to change.

The question as published

A United States central-banking statute was signed into law on 23 December 1913 and divided the country into twelve districts, each with its own regional bank. All twelve of those banks opened on the same day, roughly seven months after the committee that drew the districts announced which cities had been selected. On what date did they open?

Answer

16 November 1914

Confidence

High — stated by the system's own history service, by a member bank, and by a contemporaneous Treasury announcement

Sources opened and read

• Reserve Banks Open for Business

  Federal Reserve History (Federal Reserve System) • Central bank history essay • Primary

  States the date, the simultaneity of the twelve openings and the seven-month interval in one place, which is what allows the answer to be derived as well as read.

  Open source

• Federal Reserve Act Signed into Law

  Federal Reserve History (Federal Reserve System) • Central bank history essay • Primary

  Establishes the competing date, so the two milestones can be separated rather than conflated.

  Open source

• Announcement of Opening, Box 659

  FRASER digital library, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis • Digitised contemporaneous press announcement • Primary

  A document written at the time rather than a later account, and the strongest item in the chain because it is dated 15 November 1914 and points forward to the next morning.

  Open source

• History of the New York Fed

  Federal Reserve Bank of New York • Institutional history page • Primary

  Cross-checks the system-wide claim against a single bank's own record, so the answer does not rest on one page.

  Open source

Searches that were run

• when was the Federal Reserve created

  Google • 4 September 2026 • Answer exposed: No

  Returns 23 December 1913 immediately, from the system's own centennial page — the decoy, not the answer.

• date the twelve Federal Reserve Banks opened for business

  Web search • 4 September 2026 • Answer exposed: Yes

  Exposes 16 November 1914 in the first result summary, and also surfaced the 1914 Treasury announcement held on FRASER.

• central bank statute December 1913 twelve districts banks began operating date

  Google • 4 September 2026 • Answer exposed: No

  Mostly returns the 1913 signing and general system overviews; the operational date appears only after opening an institutional history page.

• Reserve Bank Organization Committee districts announced April 1914

  Google • 4 September 2026 • Answer exposed: No

  Reaches the district-selection material, which supports the seven-month interval used in clue C03.

• McAdoo press announcement November 15 1914 establishment of the banks

  Web search • 4 September 2026 • Answer exposed: Yes

  Reaches the FRASER scan used as E03.

What the investigation showed