Bank Notes and Shinplasters

Bank Notes and Shinplasters
Author :
Publisher : University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages : 256
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780812252248
ISBN-13 : 0812252241
Rating : 4/5 (241 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Bank Notes and Shinplasters by : Joshua R. Greenberg

Download or read book Bank Notes and Shinplasters written by Joshua R. Greenberg and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2020-07-10 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The colorful history of paper money before the Civil War Before Civil War greenbacks and a national bank network established a uniform federal currency in the United States, the proliferation of loosely regulated banks saturated the early American republic with upwards of 10,000 unique and legal bank notes. This number does not even include the plethora of counterfeit bills and the countless shinplasters of questionable legality issued by unregulated merchants, firms, and municipalities. Adding to the chaos was the idiosyncratic method for negotiating their value, an often manipulative face-to-face discussion consciously separated from any haggling over the price of the work, goods, or services for sale. In Bank Notes and Shinplasters, Joshua R. Greenberg shows how ordinary Americans accumulated and wielded the financial knowledge required to navigate interpersonal bank note transactions. Locating evidence of Americans grappling with their money in fiction, correspondence, newspapers, printed ephemera, government documents, legal cases, and even on the money itself, Greenberg argues Americans, by necessity, developed the ability to analyze the value of paper financial instruments, assess the strength of banking institutions, and even track legislative changes that might alter the rules of currency circulation. In his examination of the doodles, calculations, political screeds, and commercial stamps that ended up on bank bills, he connects the material culture of cash to financial, political, and intellectual history. The book demonstrates that the shift from state-regulated banks and private shinplaster producers to federally authorized paper money in the Civil War era led to the erasure of the skill, knowledge, and lived experience with banking that informed debates over economic policy. The end result, Greenberg writes, has been a diminished public understanding of how currency and the financial sector operate in our contemporary era, from the 2008 recession to the rise of Bitcoin.


Bank Notes and Shinplasters Related Books

Bank Notes and Shinplasters
Language: en
Pages: 256
Authors: Joshua R. Greenberg
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2020-07-10 - Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

GET EBOOK

The colorful history of paper money before the Civil War Before Civil War greenbacks and a national bank network established a uniform federal currency in the U
Other People's Money
Language: en
Pages: 207
Authors: Sharon Ann Murphy
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2017-03-15 - Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press

GET EBOOK

How the contentious world of nineteenth-century banking shaped the United States. Pieces of paper that claimed to be good for two dollars upon redemption at a d
The Federalist Frontier
Language: en
Pages: 280
Authors: Kristopher Maulden
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2019-12-03 - Publisher: University of Missouri Press

GET EBOOK

The Federalist Frontier traces the development of Federalist policies and the Federalist Party in the first three states of the Northwest Territory—Ohio, Indi
Counterfeit Currency of the Confederate States of America
Language: en
Pages: 208
Authors: George B. Tremmel
Categories: Antiques & Collectibles
Type: BOOK - Published: 2003 - Publisher: McFarland

GET EBOOK

Since shortly after the end of the Civil War, genuine Confederate paper money has been the subject of much research. While a number of publications are availabl
Nazis of Copley Square
Language: en
Pages: 337
Authors: Charles Gallagher
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2021-09-28 - Publisher: Harvard University Press

GET EBOOK

The forgotten history of American terrorists who, in the name of God, conspired to overthrow the government and formed an alliance with Hitler. On January 13, 1