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Commodity Money
Difficult to produce, scarce or useable items traded for goods and services used in the United States since before the thirteen colonies existed.
Examples include:
- Gold
- Beaver hide
- Tobacco -
Introduction of Bills of Credit
Bills of credit, also known as colonial notes were the first paper currency the United States used. A bill of credit was a piece of paper that said "The government owes me x amount of money" and was used similarly to the dollar today. -
Franklin's Anti-Counterfitting Solution
Benjamin Franklin was the first person in the United States to manufacture an easy method to deter counterfeiters. Using leaves and a printing press, Franklin gave each note a complex pattern that was both easily recognizable and difficult to fraudulently reproduce. -
Continental Bills
In order to fund the revolutionary war, the Continental Congress made paper bills, but the lack of basis in something tangeable made the bills depreciate in value quickly. -
The National Symbol
The dollar sign gets adopted nationally. Though the origins of the symbol are debated, it's likely to have evolved from an abbreviation for the Spanish peso. -
The Mint Act
The Mint Act set the dollar as the official currency of the United States and set standards for coins and how they were to be minted. -
National Bank Notes
The federal government allowed banks to produce their own notes, but there was a consistent base design, allowing a standard to be kept. -
Silver Certificates
Five values of silver certificate were produced to replace silver dollars, which were heavy and less convenient than the paper that made up the certificate notes. -
The Federal Reserve Act
The Federal Reserve Act established the Federal Reserve and Federal reserve notes, which are still in use today. -
The First Credit Card
The Interbank Card Association, a group of financial institutions, created the Interbank card, now operating under the name Mastercard, and paved the way for modern-day credit cards. -
The End of the Gold Standard
Up until this point, a United States dollar was worth a set amount of gold that the national government owned. Former President Nixon and a cabinet of advisors abolished the system in favor of fiat money, which is solely backed by the authority of the United States government. -
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Modern Day
Today, most money is handled digitally, through mediums like checking accounts and cryptocurrency. The digitization of money has made it significantly easier to manage the incredulously large amount of bills in circulation today, both for consumers who don't have to haul around pounds of bills, and banks who don't have to spend so much time counting.