Money of the Civil War

For the United States, the most important event of the 19th century, far eclipsing all others, was the Civil War that lasted from 1861 to 1865. The destruction of property and the loss of life were on a scale not thought possible in this country until it actually happened. And for decades after the war ended, it still was a topic that many of the public thought of on a daily basis.

The great changes wrought by the war were no less dramatic in the monetary world. Prior to 1861, the government operated with hard currency, gold and silver, and the realm of paper money was essentially left to the private banking industry. By war’s end, however, government bank notes, derisively called “greenbacks,” were the order of the day while gold and silver were mere memories in the marketplace.

In some ways, the monetary upheavals of the 1860s began with the 1849 California Gold Rush. So much gold was mined that the balance between gold and silver was shattered beyond repair. Silver coins were soon melted or otherwise driven from circulation. In early 1853, recognizing the inevitable, Congress lowered the weights of the silver coins (except for the silver dollar), and they once again circulated.

Philadelphia Mint officials saw the 1853 law as a command to strike all the silver coinage that could be vended