It ’s not just newspaper . From the first short letter go forth by the Continental Congress to the latest whiz - spangled account release by the Federal Reserve , the history of money in America is laced with insurrection , propaganda , and — of course — lots and lots of wealth . It ’s awkwardly beautiful .
The history of newspaper currentness , specifically , answer as a curious lens through which to understand the origins of this complicated land . Like the governing itself , money in America dates back to 1776 when the Continental Congress release the country ’s first official dollar bills . But before and well after that , it had been a free - for - all with any bank or province capable to make out its own up-to-dateness . It was n’t until the twentieth century that the nation ’s currentness would be standardize and even recognizable to present - solar day observers .
On April 20 , 2016 , the Treasuryannounced a major redesignof American paper currentness . For the first time in over a one C , charwoman will appear on Federal Reserve note — specifically the $ 20 , $ 10 , and $ 5 bills . It ’s the beginning of a new epoch of American money design . But how we get here is a snatch of a distorted tale .
Out of Many, One
befittingly enough , the news “ dollar ” can be trace back to the early days of New York City . In the seventeenth century , New York was a Dutch settlement know as New Amsterdam , and the currency of pick was the leeuwendaler , or lion dollar . An brief version of the word became wide used in all 13 colony not only to relate to the Dutch up-to-dateness but also the peso de ocho ( slice of eight ) , or Spanish dollar .
In the years leading up to America ’s independency , each of the colonies started issuing its own currency . Some used the term dollar sign , and others used British appellative such as shillings and pence . When the American Revolution start in 1775 , however , the Continental Congress go forth the nation ’s first theme currency : the United States Dollar . These were commonly know as Continentals , and the British quickly admit to forge them as a method of economical warfare .
Counterfeiting was just a fresh job . Even compound currencies had anti - counterfeiting measures already in place . Common methods involved including intricate approach pattern and even use literal plant leave in the impression process to make alone radiation diagram on the note . Of course , adding the phrase “ ’ Tis last to Counterfeit ” also serve as a grim reminder of the punishment for the criminal offense :
The design of the first Continentals for the most part resembles the colonial currency already in circulation . The denomination break away from one 6th of a dollar up to $ 80 , and each note boast an ornate border with text that read “ United States of North America . ” Now familiar iconography also appear on the banker’s bill , namely the bare pyramid with 13 levels for the original 13 colonies . Whether it ’s an former reference to Manifest Destiny or a hush-hush Masonic symbol embedded by the Illuminati , the pyramid would subsequently gain an all - seeing heart on top and become the back of the Great Seal of the United States .
Over the course of the Revolution , the Continental Congress would make out over $ 240 million Charles Frederick Worth of these notes . The currentness was rapidly devalued due , in part , to extremely skilled British counterfeiter flooding the food market with fakes . Inflation spread so fast that the notes were much worthless by 1781 , a crisis that ultimately led to the musical theme that any up-to-dateness in the United States would need to be gage by silver or gold or … something .
The Coinage Act of 1792 would define the silvern dollar as the primary building block of money in the United States . Signed by George Washington himself , the law established the Mint as well as the coin system of rules still used today — from the copper penny to the silver grey dime bag all the way up to the gold $ 10 eagle . Only coins were considered effectual tender , however . It took almost a century before any semblance of order would emerge in the paper money game and , namely , before newspaper currentness would be considered legal tender .
The Wildcat Era
thing got complicated as the newly self-governing United States started to grow . While the Coinage Act give the young nation a up-to-dateness , the federal governing did n’t way out banknotes until the Civil War . This left the task of print paper money to the state and to private banks . you may imagine the bedlam that ensued .
Throughout the former 1800s , there was an endless assortment of banknotes . All of the paper money looked unlike , and the further you traveled off from the bring out bank , the less it was deserving . For example , a $ 5 nib from the Agricultural Bank of Tennessee might only be deserving $ 4 in New York . money box would keep logs of various banknote and their exchange rates , an especially difficult task in an era before modern communications . And most importantly , the private banker’s bill were not legal tender . They were only deserving something if the issuing camber could pay off them .
To make things even trickier , scam artists got involved . Since any bank chartered by a country could start printing money , some hoi polloi would spread out up so - called “ beast banks ” in a distant region and get going issuing private banknotes . Because the banks were out of the mode — especially out West — it was more difficult for citizenry to redeem those banknotes , and the note would be despicable if the cant betray .
There was another big trouble with the wildcat earned run average , also known as the “ Free Banking period . ” Counterfeiting was easy . Any crook could take worthless beast currency , scratch off the name of the failed depository financial institution and replace it with that of a legitimate one . Because bookkeeper would n’t always sleep with what a specific bank ’s design look like , they were easily tricked . finally , the problems due to brute currency would take the federal governing to make a internal banking system with a national currency . The Civil War toy a role , too , of course of instruction .
The Birth of the Greenback
The Civil War was a complex crisis that was perplex even further by the limited amount of effectual bid in circulation . Again , paper money was not considered legal legal tender up until this level . Even secret bill were supposed to be bet on by gold or Ag .
warfare is expensive , and both the Union and the Confederacy needed a direction to ante up soldiers . The South rushed to publish its own money , and the first Confederate dollars entered circulation just two months after the Southern states split off from the remainder of the nation . Sometimes name to as “ Greybacks , ” these bank notes were not endorse by gold or atomic number 47 , although it was compose on the bill that they ’d be redeemed “ six calendar month after the ratification of a accord of public security between the Confederate States and the United States . ” That plain never happened .
Short - lived as they were , the Confederate dollars bore some design elements that would also appear on United States currentness in the years to get . The ornate but simple edge , engrave style , and two - color impression should attend familiar .
As the Confederate States set off circulate its own dollar bill , the Union bucket along to find a financial root of its own . Congress passed a jurisprudence to print $ 50 million worth of Demand Notes in the summer of 1861 . These bank note were considered effectual tender and were plump for by bonds . By 1863 , however , they were almost all out of circulation , since the politics used them to bear custom duties .
Taking the suggestion of an Illinois man of affairs , President Lincoln convince Congress to sanction a plan for egress unassisted paper currency in 1862 . The Legal Tender Act authorized $ 150 million Charles Frederick Worth of full sound pinnace Treasury notes . While the intent largely resembled the limited Demand Notes , the Treasury seal is stamped on the front of each note . The large rectangular bills earned the sobriquet “ Greenbacks , ” course , because the backs were publish with green ink .
government note represented the first wide issued paper money in the United States since the days of the Continentals . The banknote were printed by the National Bank Note Company and feature a phone number of technique not only to fete America ’s national identity but also to forestall counterfeiting . The etching was performed by a master craftsman and produced a unique grain on the newspaper publisher . The baroque designs on both side the banknotes were produced with a short morsel of mechanically skillful assistance . A equipment akin to a Spirograph enabled the engravers to produce the beautiful geometric scrollwork patterns that can still be found on American money today . Even the placeable typeface persist largely the same .
unusually , this is only the beginning of America ’s growing compulsion with money . After the warfare and throughout the Gilded Age , the purpose became intensely sophisticated and eventually legendary . Every banknote was a work of nontextual matter .
The Silver Certificates
After cover all the topsy-turvydom of the Civil War and the Wild West , it ’s time to talk about the golden age of American up-to-dateness design . While bank note remained wide used for the rest of the 19th one C , novel type of paper money were issued , and holy hell , were they beautiful .
permit ’s start with Silver Certificates . In 1886 , the United States supply the first and only banknote to feature the face of a substantial woman on the front . ( Some fictional adult female did come along on bill . ) Martha Washington look on the original $ 1 Silver Certificate . ( She was also on the back of a different Silver Certificate along with her husband George . ) As the name implies , the banknotes were redeemable for genuine ash grey and were offered in denominations of $ 1 through $ 1,000 over the course of nearly a C .
As you could see , the once - wide-eyed borders have evolved to let in more scrollwork and textbook . The almost spiderweb - corresponding intention around the magnanimous numeral one embellishes the earlier expressive style of the Greenbacks . In a likewise hoity-toity fashion , the engraving of Martha Washington is almost natural . Believe it or not , this is one of the more humble Silver Certificates .
On the heel of the World ’s Columbia Exhibition in Chicago , the Union government released the Education Series which is wide regarded as the most beautiful American money of all . Perhaps the most complex excogitation is the $ 1 bill featuring Columbia — who was not a veridical woman — point at the then - newly completed Washington Monument .
And this is the aforementioned back featuring both George and Martha Washington . suss out out the holy man fleet out of the turning point !
It gets good . The $ 5 Silver Certificate from the same twelvemonth is batshit awesome . boast a depiction of “ Electricity Presenting Light to the humankind , ” it not only confront a startling , almost futurist aesthetic but also celebrates the new American dominance in engineering and innovation . Thomas Edison must ’ve have sex it .
During this same metre geological period the Legal Tender notes remained in circulation . However , it was on the Silver Certificates — and , to a lesser stage , the Gold Certificates — that the most recognizable aspect of American money design started to be come evenhandedly standardized .
The form of the borders and positioning of the portrayal would acquire somewhat over clock time , but this is somewhat much what American money looked like for the intact twentieth century . Silver Certificates can still but used as legal tender today , though the government activity discontinue issuing them in 1957 .
The Gold Certificates (With a Little Technicolor, Too)
The federal government started issuing Gold Certificates a few years before Silver Certificates , though they were n’t quite as far-flung . The earliest series in 1865 come only in in high spirits denominations and looked a bit like the Legal Tender notes introduce around the same fourth dimension . You could call them “ goldbacks . ”
However , in the early years of the twentieth century , a new and rather conversant design come along . Using a three - ink printing unconscious process , the Gold Certificates were marvelously vivid , so much so that the 1905 Series is commonly known as the “ Technicolor Series . ” you could see why .
The federal government continue to print Gold Certificates in designation as eminent as $ 100,000 until 1934 . The last of them look very similar to the standardized currency aim , although some still had that sick bright gold back .
It really screams America , does n’t it ?
Little Bitty and Slightly Less Pretty
Everything changed once again when Congress go past the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 . This set up a system whereby Federal Reserve Notes were distributed to various Federal Reserve Banks around the commonwealth . The banknotes are sound tender backed by Fed , though Gold and Silver Certificates continued to be grow for quite some time . However , it was the new Fed system that brought us the timeless American money design that survived most of the twentieth one C .
At first , the notes stay as large as earlier banknotes . The front featured dead presidents , black and red or blue ink printed on a very extra paper from Crane & Co.
Many of the image on the back portray famous moments in American history or more generic depictions of American industriousness and values .
Then came the most dramatic shift . American money have small . While all vizor up until this spot had been or so 7.5 - by-3 inches , every single note began to shrink to about 6 - by-2.5 inches in 1928 . The government resolve to shrink the bills for a number of unlike reasons , the most impactful of which was the rescue on paper .
The small notice also got a redesign , one that remain in place until 1996 . Since many of these account are still in circulation — in fact , the $ 1 bill remain unchanged — you’re able to spot them instantaneously . You ’ve probably never reckon a $ 10,000 bill , though .
While it ’s strange not to see a chair on more modern money , Chase was an exceeding player in the history of American money . He was Secretary of the Treasury under Abraham Lincoln and introduced the nation ’s first paper money and national bank . The Union regime last release the $ 10,000 , $ 5,000 , $ 1,000 , and $ 500 in 1934 . Today , the heavy account in circulation is the $ 100 , some say to make drug trafficking and money launder more difficult .
Increasingly Awful Redesigns
This brings us to the ambitious redesign of 1996 . In an effort to improve anti - counterfeiting measures , the Union government redesign five of the six remaining denominations of Federal Reserve Notes : $ 5 , $ 10 , $ 20 , $ 50 , and $ 100 . The presidents ’ head got bigger and were move off center . Much — but not all — of the beautiful engraving and scrollwork on the borders proceed aside . New method of spoil counterfeiters , like gloss changing ink , also appeared on some of the bills . Still , it did n’t take long for a apt Chicago adult male to break it andstart printing virtually identical imitative $ 100 bills in his basement .
The design from 1996 was n’t the sorry . However , the federal government updated the design yet again in 2003 adding more vividness , more security measures , and a truly unspeakable portrayal of American sophistication . Remember the star - spangle bill I cite in the first place ?
American money invention is always a representation of who we are as a country — or at least what we ’d like to be . This is why the 2016 redesign that contain women and minorities is such a heavy raft . We see the images on paper money daily , some more than others . But more significantly , it ’s a substance we ’re send out to the human race when the dollar get out these borders . When outsiders enter it , it ’s perhaps the government - made merchandise they handle the most .
None of this is to say these slivers of ink and newspaper define us . Come on , though . It ’s America . Sure they do .
Images via Wikipedia /Museum of American Financefrom the America in Circulation : A story of US Currency featuring the collection of Mark R. Shenkman
This Emily Price Post was in the beginning published on November 21 , 2015 . It ’s been update to include the news of the Treasury ’s latest redesign .
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