In fact, some cent coins had already been minted using nickel-and as one Pennsylvania newspaper pointed out, “the hoarding of them is unwise and injudicious.” There's no sense in hoarding a coin whose value comes from a government guarantee. And it wasn't a precious metal, so people wouldn't hoard it. It wasn't scarce, which meant the government could print millions of coins without creating new shortages. The advantage of nickel lay in what it wasn't. War production had expanded America's industrial capacity, and nickel was available in huge quantities.
50 CENT MANY MEN GOVERNMENT VERSION FULL
“It's not until after the Civil War that coin production resumes at full capacity,” says Mudd.Īs the United States turned its attention to rebuilding, not all metals were scarce.
The war finally ended in 1865, but it took many months for precious metals to trickle back into circulation. Shopkeepers could give coins, stamps or bills as change. Even private banks and businesses were releasing their own notes and coins. National Museum of American History via Wikicommonsįor the duration of the war, the American economy puttered along with all kinds of competing currency.
50 CENT MANY MEN GOVERNMENT VERSION SERIES
“It looked like a coin with a window on it,” says Mudd.ĭemand Notes, Series 1861, were issued by the United States in $5, $10, and $20 denominations. In 1861, the government began paying Union soldiers with “Demand Notes”-also known as “greenbacks.” Meanwhile, stamps were declared legal tender for small purchases a round metal case was developed to keep them intact. It was in this economic vacuum that the United States tried a series of monetary experiments. “And if can't make change, the economy stops.” “It's like, all of a sudden, not being able to go to 7-Eleven because can't make change,” he says. Mudd puts the problem in more familiar terms. One Philadelphia newspaper reported that the local economy had slowed to a crawl in 1863, citing that some storekeepers had to cut their prices “one to four cents on each transaction” or refuse to sell products outright because they were unable to get a hold of money. But without coinage, transactions of everyday life-buying bread, selling wares, sending mail-become almost impossible. Minting new coins might not seem like a priority in a time of war. The limited supply of gold and silver was needed to purchase supplies from abroad, which meant the Confederacy relied almost exclusively on paper currency. “Even the cent was disappearing.” In the South, this problem was even worse. “The United States literally did not have the resources in gold and silver to produce enough money to meet the needs of the country,” says Douglas Mudd, the director of the American Numismatic Association. “People started hoarding hard money, especially silver and gold.”Ĭoins seemed to vanish overnight, and the U.S. Widespread anxiety led to an important side-effect of war. “The outcome of the Civil War was uncertain,” says Bowers, an author of several books on coin history. America was in crisis, and so was its currency. Soon shells were falling on Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. They had intrinsic value.īut in the spring of 1861, southern states began to secede, and Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as President. In the event of a financial crisis-or worse, the collapse of a government-precious metal coins could always be melted down. In the 1850s, coins of any real value were made of gold and silver. To understand how the nickel got its name, you have to go back to an era when precious metals reigned supreme. And 150 years since it was first minted in 1866, the modest nickel serves as a window into the symbolic and practical importance of coinage itself. The story of America's five-cent coin is, strangely enough, a war story. Those aren't the only surprises hidden in the history of the nickel. Today's so-called nickels are 75 percent copper. “Actually, nickels should be called 'coppers,'” says coin expert Q. It turns out that even the name “nickel” is misleading. Before that, “nickel cents” referred to alloy pennies. The nickel wasn't always worth five cents. The history behind America's five-cent coin
0 kommentar(er)
