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History of United States Banks and Money
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Bank of North America
The first ever bank was opened in America. This bank was in Philidelphia and was given a twenty year charter for business by legislature. Alexander Hamilton's idea, as a semi-public bank was the first step towards an established American economy. -
United States Adopts New "Dollar"
The U.S Congress adopts the dollar. They had accepted this as the official currency. the United States now had a currency that all could use, instead of multiple variations of money that different corperations had printed. -
Congress Authorization
Congress authorized the First Bank of United States to issue paper money, to eliminate the confusion of all the other money. Most money was easy to duplicate and hard to tell between counterfeit and real money. -
U.S. Mint
The United States established the Federal Monetary System, when the first U.S. Mint opened in Philidelphia. although it was created in 1792, the first American coin was not struck until 1793. -
Second U.S. Bank
About 5 years after the First U.S. bank went bankrupt, they decided to build and charter another bank. The second U.S. Bank was chartered in 1816, and like the first it was given 20 years to operate. the president or the second bank, Nicholas Biddle, went to congress to see if they bank could get the next charter early. President Andrew Jackson shot that down and in five years after he charter expired the second U.S. bank went bankrupt. -
State Bank Notes
1,600 state-chartered private banks had issued its members paper money. These state bank notes, had over 30,000 different variations in design and color, and were easily counterfeited. This created problems when banks crashed, with circulation of the real and fake money. -
Greenbacks
United States Treasury issude paper money for the first time with non-interest bearing Treasury Notes called Demand Notes. The next year, the Demand Notes were replaced by the United States Notes. The new United States Notes were referred to as Greenbacks, as the back of the dollar bill had a green hue to it. The Greenback design was last printed in 1971. -
New Design
The new design on the dollar bill had the U.S. Treasury Seal, fine line engraving, and distictive linen paper with red and blue fibers, to make counterfeiting more dificult. -
Civil War Counterfeits
After the Civil War, the United States was in economic chaos as nearly 1/3 of the money in circulation was counterfeit. In July, the Secret Service was created as part of the Dept. of Treasury to help stop the counterfeit bills. -
Silver Certificates
The Department of the Treasury was authorized to issue Silver Certificates in exchange for silver dollars. The last issue was in the Series 1957. -
First Commemorative Coin
The first US commemorative coin was produced, featuring Christopher Columbus. -
Federal Reserve Act
This act made the U.S. have one gigantic central bank. They had a new way of supporting the countries financial needs. They also created the new currency, the Federal Reserve Note. -
Standard Design
All currency was reduced in size by about 30 percent. Standardized designs were instituted for each denomination across all classes of currency, decreasing the number of different designs in circulation. This made it easier for people to distinguish between genuine and counterfeit bills. -
In God We Trust
The use of "In God We Trust" on all currency has been required by law since 1955. It first appeared on paper money with the $1 Silver Certificates, in 1957, and began appearing on Federal Reserve Notes with the 1963 Series. -
Lincoln's Memorial
On the reverse side of the one-cent peice, the Lincoln Memorial was designed by Frank Gasparro for his 150th birthday. This is the only coin to have the same person on both sides of a coin. -
Federal Reserve System in 1990
Over seven billion notes, valued at over $82 billion were produced for circulation by the Federal Reserve System. at a cost of 2.6 cents per bill. with 95% percent of these replacing old and unusable bills, 5% goes for economic growth. The Bureau of Engraving has $4,095 worth of bills produced every minute. -
Security Threading
A security thread and microprinting were introduced to deter counterfeiting by advanced copiers and printers. The features first appeared in Series 1990 $100 bills. By Series 1993, the features appeared on all except $1 and $2 bills. -
New Design
The Secretary of the Treasury announced that U.S. currency would be redesigned to incorporate a new series of counterfeit deterrents. The newly designed $100 was introduced in 1996, the $50 in 1997, and the $20 in 1998. The new $50 was the first to incorporate a low-vision feature, a large dark numeral on a light background on the lower right corner of the back, to help people with low vision identify the denomination. -
U.S. Mint and Coin Numbers
The U.S Treasury produced in 1998, a total of :
pennies - 10,257,400,000
nickels - 1,323,672,000
dimes - 2,335,300,000
quarters - 1,867,400,000
half-dollars - 30,710,000 -
State Quarters
The program was run from 1999 until 2008, with five new quarters released every year over ten years. The 50 new quarters featured designs that honors each state's unique history and tradition. The quarters were released in the order that the states joined the union.
