Money

The History of the American Monetary System

By skempf
  • Money in the Colonies

    Money in the Colonies
    The colonies used tobacco and rice as their monetary system until they needed it to finance the Revolutionary War. The money they then used was too easy to counterfeit and after a short time became invaluable.
  • Independence Day

    Independence Day
    Even after the 13 colonies were discovered, they were still controlled by Great Britain. America faught for our independence and officially were declared independent on July 4th. We now celebrate with fire works to remember our past.
  • First Bank of the Nation

    First Bank of the Nation
    The first national bank was created also for the Revoluionary War. They called it Bank of North America. It was located in Philadelphia.
  • First Dollar Coin

    First Dollar Coin
    The first dollar coin was created in 1782. They used gold and silver to try creating different versions. But it's not very popular because who likes to carry around coins.
  • Plans for the Dollar

    Plans for the Dollar
    Continental Congress starting talking about creating a monetary system. They're plans were essentailly the dollar. However, the plans wouldn't be put into action quite yet.
  • First U.S. Bank

    First U.S. Bank
    Congress chartered the first U.S. bank. They used paper bank notes to try to prevent confusion with trading. They performed the first central bank functions.
  • First American Coins

    First American Coins
    The first U.S. coin was created with the creation of the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia. There were half-pennies used with the poor. And pennies were larger to make sure they were pure copper.
  • First Bank Robbery

    First Bank Robbery
    In 1798 a bank in Phil. was changing the locks on their vault. They hired a lock smith named Lyon. During this, a large amound of money went missing.
  • Period: to

    $1,000

    The thousand dollar bill was printed from 1861-1945. It's hard to track when a bill really was printed because they don't change the date each year, they only change it each time a printing is issued. So bills with 1934 printed on them were acutally printed until 1945.
  • First Paper Money

    First Paper Money
    The United States issued their first paper money. This was the first time money was scaled by its purchasing value and not its intrinsic value.They were $1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500, and 1,000. It was issued to help with the Civil War.
  • "In God We Trust"

    "In God We Trust"
    It became a law to put the phrase "In God We Trust" on all money. The motto disappeared from the five-cent coin in 1883 but came back in 1938. It's also on gold and silver coins.
  • Great Depression

    Great Depression
    9,000 banks failed. Bank deposits were not insured and people all lost their savings. This combined with the failing stock market caused the depression to last for 10 years.
  • Baby Boom Inflation

    Baby Boom Inflation
    After WWII, the dollar was inflated 10%. During the great depression it was -10%. That's a 20% change in 12 years.
  • $2

    $2
    Many people think that the $2 isn't being printed anymore, however it is. The last printing was in 2008 but many of them are being hoarded because people think they are going to be worth something in the future. Yet, anything dated after 1976 is only worth $2.
  • Largest Bank

    Largest Bank
    The largest bank in the U.S. was completed in 1992. It is in Charlotte, N.C. It is the tallest building it that city and has assets of $2,340,667,014.
  • Sondra's Birthday

    Sondra's Birthday
  • Redesign

    Redesign
    The $10 and $5 bills were redesigned. They redesign them to make it harder for people to counterfeit. They added water marking and smaller hidden print.
  • "Face-lift for the $20"

    "Face-lift for the $20"
    They redesigned the $20. The larger the dollar bill, the more it gets counterfeited. They added a watermarked face of the man's face.
  • Minimun Wage

    Minimun Wage
    In 2007, the minimum wage was raised from $5.15 to $5.85 an hour.
  • Period: to

    Great Recession

    The great recession was caused when the housing market crashed and other factors combined. People lost jobs and the value of the dollar went way down. Gas prices went up and family's all had to change their own individual economies.
  • Rich!

    Rich!
    Bill Gates is the richest man in the world. He has 61B!