What Did U.S. Money Look Like in the 1800s?
While the Coinage Act of 1792 established the United States Mint and the dollar as the unit of currency for the fledgling nation, it was quite some time before a fully standardized monetary system took root. In the meantime, people in possession of valuable metals continued to use them for transactions, local banks offered their own currency, and foreign money continued to flow until being banned as legal tender in 1857.
Despite this relative instability, Americans today would largely recognize the various forms of currency that exchanged hands in the 19th century, even if the designs and denominations of the coins and paper bills often differed from those in circulation today. Here’s a glimpse at what money looked like as the United States came of age.
Gold Coins
The 1792 Coinage Act stipulated that all U.S. coins were to feature a depiction of the goddess Liberty on the front, while gold and silver coinage also required the display of an eagle on the back. As a result, the gold eagle ($10), half-eagle ($5), and quarter-eagle ($2.50) coins that went into circulation in the 1790s were all engraved in this fashion through the 1800s.
By the mid-19th century, the discovery of gold in California ushered a new wave of the precious metal into the economy, resulting in the creation of the new $1 piece, the $20 “double eagle,” and the octagonal $50 unit, aka the “slug.” Unusual denominations from this era include the $3 coin, which featured Liberty in a Native American headdress, and the $4 “Stella,” which displayed a five-pointed star instead of an eagle.
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Silver Coins
Although the silver half-dime, dime, quarter, half-dollar, and dollar pieces all surfaced by the mid-1790s, the U.S. Mint rarely churned out the first three in the early years of the 19th century, and the dollar was temporarily discontinued in 1804. Nevertheless, silver endured as an important component of the economy, with the full figure of the "Seated Liberty," accompanied by a shield and pole with a cap, adorning most coinage in the 19th century.
A clear outlier of the bunch was the 3-cent "trime" that was minted between 1851 and 1873, the smallest of all coins at just 14 millimeters in diameter and the first silver piece to not display an eagle on the reverse. Although the federal government attempted to make gold the sole monetary standard in 1873, the Bland-Allison Act of 1878 reintroduced silver into circulation, with the "Morgan Dollar," and its large profile of Liberty's face, emerging as a popular coin.
Copper Coins
Although gold and silver dominated U.S. currency in the antebellum period, the first coins to enter circulation following the Coinage Act were the large cent and half-cent in 1793. The large cent, which was roughly the size of a modern half-dollar, displayed either the "Matron Head" or "Braided Hair" profile of Liberty for most of its 19th-century run, while the half-cent featured similar designs across its quarter-sized dimension.
Both denominations underwent major changes in 1857; the cent was shrunk to its current size, while the half-cent was discontinued altogether. Another notable copper coin from the era was the short-lived 2-cent piece, which displayed a shield instead of Liberty, and became the first coin to feature the motto "In God We Trust" when it appeared in 1864.
"Greenbacks"
As part of efforts to fund the Civil War, the Union issued a temporary series of Demand Notes in 1861, before switching over to United States Notes in 1862. Both became known as "greenbacks" for the distinct green ink used as an anti-counterfeiting measure. As the earliest widespread form of U.S. paper currency, these notes resembled current legal tender in some ways, including the green color, but with some noticeable design differences.
The initial versions of the $1 and $10 notes respectively featured Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase and President Abraham Lincoln on the front, while the reverse sides of various bills included extensive wording or patterns such as the crisscross sawhorse design. Additionally, greenbacks and other early paper currency were printed in the larger dimensions of 7 3/8 inches by 3 1/8 inches, until shrinking to 6 1/8 inches by 2 5/8 inches in 1929.
Confederate Notes
Of course, the Confederacy also needed to fund its own economy and war efforts, resulting in paper currency that predated the Union version by a few months. Printed in denominations ranging from 10 cents to $1,000, these notes featured Southern figures such as Confederate President Jefferson Davis and South Carolina First Lady Lucy Holcombe Pickens, as well as allegorical symbols of industry, commerce, and the South defeating the North.
However, there was a lack of uniform size and design across the printings, and many of these "greybacks," as they were known, went into circulation with nothing printed on the reverse side. What's more, these low-quality notes faced the double whammy of being easily counterfeited and lacking the backing of government reserves, rendering them virtually worthless by the end of the Civil War.
Silver Certificates
Along with reintroducing silver into circulation, the Bland-Allison Act of 1878 led to a form of paper currency that was redeemable in silver dollars on demand. These silver certificates resembled the greenbacks that were already in widespread distribution, although certain sets are highly coveted by collectors for their ornate designs.
Chief among these are the 1896 "educational series," which notably featured the allegorical image of "History Instructing Youth" on the $1 certificate, and "Electricity as the Dominant Force in the World" on the $5 denomination. The $1 silver certificate, which debuted in 1886, is also celebrated for being the first and only U.S. paper currency to date to feature a woman on the front: Martha Washington.
