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	Money Matters: The American Experience With Money From the earliest times when commodities such as tobacco and beaver pelts were used as money, to the present when credit and debit cards are commonplace, money has always played a central role in the American experience. Early in our history, our monetary system consisted of numerous foreign coins and paper currencies issued by the thirteen colonies and the Continental Congress. More than two hundred years later, we now have a single national currency and privately owned banks chartered by state and federal governments. Furthermore, a central bank, the Federal Reserve, has replaced gold as the regulator of the value of our money. Read the complete article.

	Benjamin Franklin and the Birth of a Paper Money Economy Paper money has often been controversial and misunderstood. Why it has value, why that value changes over time, how it influences economic activity, who should be allowed to make it, how its use and creation should be controlled, and whether it should exist at all are questions that have perplexed the public, vexed politicians, and puzzled economic experts. Knowing how, when, and why paper money first became commonplace in America and the nature of the institutions issuing it can help us better comprehend paper money’s role in society. Benjamin Franklin dealt often with this topic, and his writings can teach us much about it. Read the complete article.

	Art of Money Getting By: P. T. Barnum True economy is misapprehended, and people go through life without properly comprehending what that principle is. One says, "I have an income of so much and here is my neighbor who has the same; yet every year he gets something ahead and I fall short; why is it? I know all about economy." He thinks he does, but he does not. There are many who think that economy consists in saving cheese-parings and candle-ends, in cutting off two pence from the laundress' bill and doing all sorts of little, mean, dirty things. Economy is not meanness. The misfortune is, also, that this class of persons let their economy apply in only one direction. They fancy they are so wonderfully economical in saving a half-penny where they ought to spend two pence, that they think they can afford to squander in other directions. A few years ago, before kerosene oil was discovered or thought of, one might stop overnight at almost any farmer's house in the agricultural districts and get a very good supper, but after supper he might attempt to read in the sitting-room, and would find it impossible with the inefficient light of one candle. The hostess, seeing his dilemma, would say: "It is rather difficult to read here evenings; the proverb says `you must have a ship at sea in order to be able to burn two candles at once;' we never have an extra candle except on extra occasions." Read the complete article.

	The Art of Making Money Plenty in Every Man’s Pocket By: Doctor Franklin The use of a rebus seems a most appropriate vehicle for Benjamin Franklin’s expression of his homespun philosophies. This early N. Currier print of Franklin’s effort did not include a "translation," but when deciphered, it reads as follows: "At this time when the general complaint is that money is so scarce it must be an act of kindness to inform the moneyless how they can reinforce their purses. I will acquaint all with the true secret of money catching, the certain way to fill empty purses and how to keep them always full. Two simple rules will do the business: 1st Let honesty and labor be thy constant companions; 2nd Spend one penny every day less than thy clear gains. Then shall thy purse soon begin to thrive, thy creditors will never insult thee nor want oppress nor hunger neither bite, nor naked freeze thee, the whole hemisphere will shine brighter, and pleasure spring up in every corner of thy heart. Now thereby embrace these rules and be happy." B. Franklin. Born January 7th 1706 O.S. Died, April 17th 1790.

	Lancaster Bank Formed In December 1832 a petition was made to the State Legislature for the formation of a bank in Littleton. For reasons that are not clear today, the proposal was soon altered for a bank in another town. In any event, the incorporators of the Lancaster Bank had no particular connections to Littleton, and that town was not to have a commercial or discount bank until decades later in 1871, a latecomer in the state banking scenario. Read tmhe coplete article.

	Andrew Jackson and the Bankwar It has been called a war throughout history yet no blood was shed, lives lost nor weapons fired. There were, however, two strong, opposing sides that waged a bitter struggle for what each firmly believed. Although Congress made no formal declaration, the issue of the Second Bank of the United States can easily and appropriately be considered a war. The primary players included President Andrew Jackson who fought against the bank and Nicholas Biddle, president of the bank, who fought in loyal support of it. Read the complete article.

	The Assembly and Paper Money, 1723-1756 In August 1721 Philadelphia merchant and politician Jonathan Dickinson surveyed the colony's grim situation: trade nearly stopped, money scarce, and imports depressed. Dickinson further worried that unless people were given additional time to pay for their necessities, many of them would be ill-prepared for the ensuing winter. Similar sentiments were voiced by other Pennsylvanians, who were faced, according to the provincial and proprietary secretary, James Logan, with the worst economic depression the colony had ever experienced. While a variety of factors caused the economic failure, including consistently falling grain prices beginning in the late 1710s, and financial collapse in England following the bursting of the South Sea Bubble in 1720, most of the colonists agreed that the continued cause of their distress was, according to Philadelphia merchant Thomas Griffitts, the "Want of some proper medium for Currency." Read the complete article.

	A Modest Enquiry into the Nature and Necessity of Paper Currency There is no Science, the Study of which is more useful and commendable than the Knowledge of the true In terest of one's Country; and perhaps there is no Kind of Learning more abstruse and intricate, more difficult to acquire in any Degree of Perfection than This, and there fore none more generally neglected. Hence it is, that we every Day find Men in Conversation contending warmly on some Point in Politicks, which, altho' it may nearly concern them both, neither of them understand any more than they do each other. Read the complete article.

	Causes of Bank Suspensions in the Panic of 1893 There are two competing theories explaining bank panics. One argues that panics are driven by real shocks, asymmetric information, and concerns about insolvency. The other theory argues that bank runs are self-fulfilling, driven by illiquidity and the beliefs of depositors. This paper tests predictions of these two theories using information uniquely available for the Panic of 1893. The results suggest that real economic shocks were important determinants of the location of panics at the national level, however at the local level, both insolvency and illiquidity were important as triggers of bank panics. Read the complete article.

	The American Bank Note Company Across the globe in private collections, in vaults, safety deposit boxes and even passed hand-to-hand in daily, common transactions, are thousands of pieces of valuable, fine art. These range from antique stock and bond certificates, traded and sought by collectors around the world, to the daily exchange of a high technology, hologram-bearing credit card. And while these art forms are diversified in function and form, each also represents a miniature example of the early engraver's art-raised to its finest level. They also document, in a living legacy, the growth and expansion of America's capital markets and represent one of this country's oldest, continuous corporate success stories-the American Bank Note Company. Read the complete article.

	Banking & Politics: As Old As The Republic Recently, banks have won the right at the right to charge up to $4 for use of their ATM. They won this right after years of lobbying heavily at the federal level. Other rights they have won with their Pac dollars during the last several years include: the elimination of many of the interstate banking regulations; saving banks have moved into commercial banking; commericial banks moved into financial services and there have been bank mergers all over the country eliminationing tens of thousands of jobs. All these changes in regulations meant millions more for the bankers. As the S&L scandal proved, millions more for many of our nations elected officials and their friends. Read the complete article.

	COLONIAL MONEY History of American Money & Banking During the 17th century, American settlers were starting to grow from small colonies and villages into larger towns and cities. Barter was the earliest method of trade, the direct exchange of one good for another. Soon certain commodities became most favored, such as furs and tobacco. In Virginia, warehouse receipts for bales of tobacco circulated as money. Read the complete article.

	The Reader's Companion to American History: BANKING Not banks but merchants were the sources of money and credit in the colonial period of American history (1607-1783). It was only after independence that the first commercial bank received a charter of incorporation—the Bank of North America, in 1781. British merchant banking houses stood at one end of a long chain of credit that stretched to the American frontier. Read the complete article.

	A Brief History of Our Nation's Paper Money By Karen Flamme In our society today, money's value is measured by what it can buy--its purchasing power--not by its material worth, but it hasn't always been so. American currency has spanned centuries of evolution and numerous transfigurations to reach the size and shape that we carry in our wallets today. It has been an evolutionary process which often came about in times of crisis--like the Civil War or Great Depression-- Read the complete article.

	Franklin Delano Roosevelt's First Fireside Chat President Franklin D. Roosevelt, addresses the nation on the Bank Crisis, March 12, 1933. "My friends, I want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the United States about banking..." Read his complete address.

	Debunking the Federal Reserve Conspiracy Theories (and other financial myths) Read this story A Brief History of Central Banking in the United States Read this story United States Monetary Policy Read this story

	Changing Faces of The Dollar Money hasn't always looked like it does today. Explore the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco's American Currency Exhibit online and watch history come alive as you step back in time to our nation's beginning. Learn how our country's rich history is closely tied with our currency. Discover the role the Federal Reserve has played - and continues to play - in that history. View The Exhibit

	Coca Cola Company In 1919, the Coca Cola Company was sold to Atlanta banker Ernest Woodruff, along with an investor group, for $25 million. Four years later, Robert Winship Woodruff, Ernest’s son, was elected President of the company. He was determined to make the drink available all over the world-and succeeded. complex than ever before. This coupled with the fact that there are fewer banks today than five years ago, increases the basic “franchise” value even further.

	The Rockefellers The Rockefeller family is one of the first major philanthropists in the U.S. The Rockefellers donated $540 million to charitable causes. John D. Rockefeller was the driving force behind the creation and development of the Standard Oil Company. By borrowing from and investing in community banks, Rockefeller quickly made his fortune. William Rockefeller, John’s brother, joined his brother in the oil business, and was instrumental in building up the National City Bank of New York. Today, known as Citibank, it is one of the largest banks worldwide

	Alexander Hamilton Alexander Hamilton, one of the most influential of the founding fathers, was the first Secretary of the Treasury for the newly formed Untied States government. Using knowledge he gained as one of the original founders of the Bank of New York, the oldest financial institution in the country, Hamilton placed the nation on firm financial footing.

	Sears & Roebuck Richard Warren Sears is the founder of Sears, Roebuck and Company, one of the world’s most successful department store chains. In 1889, before teaming up with Roebuck, he sold his business and worked as a rural banker in Iowa. Four years later, with an understanding of small towns and rural life, he got together with Roebuck to create the modern company we know today.