Bank Notes Before Civil War (Specifically, 1863)

choi

Cash With Flash; Obsolete bank notes. Wall Street Journal, Apr 13, 2013 (in the column Visualizer)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB ... 16550999626288.html
(book review on Richard Doty, Pictures From a Distant Country: Seeing America through old paper money. Whitman, 2013)

Note:
(a) The review says, "From 1790 to the 1860s, when the federal government began issuing paper money, some 8,000 fiscal entities printed US bills, from banks to railroads to factories—and they could design the notes any way they wanted."

(b) United States dollar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_dollar
(section 2 Etymology: The [Dutch] leeuwendaler was popular in the Dutch New Netherland Colony (New York); US Constitution provides Congress shall have the power "To coin money" and Congress has authorized Federal Reserve Banks to issue Federal Reserve Notes)

Quote: "The first [official] United States dollar [coin, by US government] was minted in 1794 [and 1795]. Known as the Flowing Hair Dollar, it contained 416 grains of 'standard silver' (89.25% silver and 10.75% copper), as specified by Section 13 of the Coinage Act of 1792. It was designated by Section 9 of that Act as having 'the value of a Spanish milled dollar.'  Dollar coins have not been very popular in the United States.
(c) early American currency  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_American_currency
("United States Constitution, ratified in 1788, denied individual states the right to coin and print money")

The quotation is correct, but US constitution does not prohibit state-chartered private banks (or individual) to coin or print money--as long as it does not look similar to US currency.

(d) National Bank Act
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Bank_Act
(e) numismatics (n; Latin nomismat-, nomisma coin, from Greek, current coin, from nomizein to use):
"the study or collection of coins, tokens, and paper money and sometimes related objects (as medals)"

choi

(2) Berkshare is the largest local currency in US. And its website has an archive for news reports about it.
http://www.berkshares.org/press/2009.htm
Reports of local currencies peaked in 2009, a year into the Great Recession.

(a) Marisol Bello, Communities print their own currency to keep cash flowing. USA Today, April 5, 2009/
http://www.berkshares.org/press/09apr05.htm

(b) Jennifer Haley, Some Communities Are Printing Their Own Currency. CNN, Apr 22, 2009.
http://www.berkshares.org/press/09apr22.htm

Quote:

"Printing and distributing local currency isn't illegal. But there are rules, says Lewis Solomon, a law professor at George Washington University. First, the currency can only be paper; no coins are allowed.

"Just printing the right amount of local currency is difficult. If you print too much currency, there's the possibility of inflation. If you print too little, there are no economic advantages.

"Some economists are skeptical that complementary currencies will ever have much impact. 'They usually don't hold up too well, or too long,' says Bert Ely, a banking analyst. * * * And since the early 1990s, there have been about a dozen local currencies that have failed in the United States.

My comment:
(a) There is no need to read the rest of the CNN report.
(b) What are BerkShares?  Berkshares, Inc, undated.
http://berkshares.org/whatareberkshares.htm
("BerkShares are a local currency for the Berkshire region [or county] of Massachusetts. * * * Launched in the fall of 2006, BerkShares had a robust initiation, with over one million BerkShares circulated in the first nine months and over 2.7 million to date. Currently, more than four hundred businesses have signed up to accept the currency. Five different banks have partnered with BerkShares, with a total of thirteen branch offices now serving as exchange stations. For BerkShares, this is only the beginning. Future plans could involve BerkShares checking accounts, electronic transfer of funds, ATM machines, and even a loan program")
(c) Dan Barry, Would You Like That in Tens, Twenties or Normans?  New York Times, Feb 26, 2007
(photo captions: "Currency specific to Berkshire County, Mass. features images of local heroes including Norman Rockwell [a painter] and Herman Melville [who wrote Moby-Dick]")
was about Berkshares.
(d) WSJ more than 15 years ago had report about local currencies, focusing on Hours of Ithaca, New York.
(i) Ellen Graham, Community groups print Local (and Legal) Currencies. Wall Street Journal, June 27, 1996, p B1
, which can be found in the Web.
(ii) Ithaca Hours. undated.
http://ithacahours.org