Coins, Currency, and Medals

The museum possesses one of the largest and most diverse numismatic collections in the world. Its diverse holdings represent every inhabited continent and span more than three millennia. The collection includes coins, paper money, medals, tokens, commodity and alternative currencies, coin dies, printing plates, scales and weights, financial documents and apparatuses, credit cards, and objects that reflect established and emerging digital monetary technologies worldwide.

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1779-01-14
1779
maker
Continental Congress
Hall & Sellers
ID Number
NU.6463
serial number
116252
catalog number
6463
accession number
28580
By the time they broke with England, the thirteen American colonies had been issuing paper currency for nearly a century.
Description
By the time they broke with England, the thirteen American colonies had been issuing paper currency for nearly a century. Both they and the loose central government they set up under the Articles of Confederation to oversee matters of common concern would continue to do so throughout the War of Independence. The "national" paper went by the name of "Continental Currency." As its name suggests, it was issued by the Continental Congress.
The paper on which it was printed was of very high quality but was also very soft. Because the notes were often folded horizontally, they often developed top-to-bottom breaks at midpoint. Left to themselves, the two halves would eventually part company. Whether anyone would take just half a note in payment was unclear. That uncertainty led people to adopt all kinds of stratagems to keep notes intact or repair those that had torn apart.
But there was more to it than that. To many, this new money symbolized a new nation-it had to be repaired, kept afloat. Because if it were not, what would that say about the aspiring nation that had issued it? Various methods were devised to do the job. In the case of this two-dollar bill, someone expert with a needle and thread-perhaps a housewife, or a sailor-carefully sewed the two halves back together. That effort has now survived for more than two centuries.
Continental currency was printed by Benjamin Franklin's successors, Hall & Sellers. Franklin also suggested inspiring vignettes and mottoes for the notes. The face of the two-dollar bill bears an image of grain being flailed (separated from the chaff), with the motto, TRIBULATIO DITAT (Troubles make us stronger).
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1776
date on object
1776-02-17
maker
Continental Congress
Hall & Sellers
ID Number
NU.69.217.34
accession number
287114
catalog number
69.217.34
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date on object
1776-02-17
date made
1776
issuing authority
Continental Congress
maker
Continental Congress
Hall & Sellers
ID Number
NU.68.135.80
catalog number
68.135.80
accession number
279615
serial number
270317
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date on object
1779-02-08
date made
1779
maker
Coram, Thomas
ID Number
NU.79.112.CC197
accession number
1979.1263
serial number
8039
collector/donor number
CC197
catalog number
79.112.CC197
One can't be too careful. This Connecticut note was falling apart when someone backed it with part of a contemporary newspaper, full of news about the war between England and France in the Caribbean. But simple glue would not suffice to mend the note.
Description
One can't be too careful. This Connecticut note was falling apart when someone backed it with part of a contemporary newspaper, full of news about the war between England and France in the Caribbean. But simple glue would not suffice to mend the note. Someone carefully stitched the note again and again, covering it with an irregular but very strong reinforcement.
And it worked. The bill was later canceled and retired by means of a cut from the center to the bottom margin, and it still held together-as did the dreams of the patriots who created and kept it in circulation.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1776
date on object
1776-06-07
maker
Connecticut
Green, Timothy II
ID Number
NU.71.122.1117
catalog number
71.122.1117
accession number
297844
serial number
6236
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1774
date on object
1774-04-10
maker
A. C. and F. Green
ID Number
NU.NU60868
serial number
16944
catalog number
NU60868
accession number
227803
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1781
date on object
1781-05-07
maker
Dunlap, John
ID Number
NU.79.112.CC214
catalog number
79.112.CC214
collector/donor number
CC214
accession number
1979.1263
serial number
6549
One (1) 2 dollar noteNew Jersey, United States, 1855Obverse Image: Seal at left. In center, two men with horses, train in background. Portrait of a man at right.Obverse Text: TWO / 2 / NEW JERSEY. / NO. _ / A / THE BORDENTOWN BANKING CO. WILL PAY TWO DOLLARS TO BEARER ON DEMAND.
Description (Brief)
One (1) 2 dollar note
New Jersey, United States, 1855
Obverse Image: Seal at left. In center, two men with horses, train in background. Portrait of a man at right.
Obverse Text: TWO / 2 / NEW JERSEY. / NO. _ / A / THE BORDENTOWN BANKING CO. WILL PAY TWO DOLLARS TO BEARER ON DEMAND. / BORDENTOWN JUNE 1ST 1855
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1855
maker
American Bank Note Company
ID Number
1992.0281.1266
catalog number
92.281.1266
1992.0281.1266
accession number
1992.0281
Between the winter of 1860 and the spring of 1861, eleven Southern states broke away from the United States to form a new country, the Confederate States of America (CSA).
Description
Between the winter of 1860 and the spring of 1861, eleven Southern states broke away from the United States to form a new country, the Confederate States of America (CSA). As a fledgling nation, the Confederacy faced two obstacles: to create a sense of national unity and to arm its troops to wage a modern war. Money connected both issues—it would celebrate the new nation and finance the war. On March 9, 1861, the CSA authorized a national currency.
Between 1861 and 1865, the new government issued Confederate currency on eight separate occasions. Each issuance pumped millions of dollars into circulation. Counterfeiters added to the deluge with freshly made fakes. The result was a staggering amount of paper money and massive inflation. The CSA responded to the problem by recalling, cancelling, and burning old notes to remove them from circulation. The first official recall on February 17th, 1864, came after two years of less harsh—but unsuccessful—efforts to reduce the volume of currency in circulation.
The problem of what to do with all of the recalled money fell to the Confederate Treasury Department, which enlisted the help of banks and depositories. Historian and numismatist Douglas Ball identified three primary strategies used to cancel currency. Machine-powered circular punches were preferred by the Treasury, while banks canceled currency by striking it with bank hammers, which left two x-shaped slices on the note. Depositories also used bank hammers, but sometimes opted to cut the notes with scissors, leaving two small triangles along the bottom edge.
Once cancelled, all notes were sent to the Confederate Treasury in Richmond, Virginia, to be burned. Some notes escaped destruction. At war’s end, the Union Army confiscated the notes along with Confederate government records to investigate a possible connection between the Confederacy and President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.
Today, researchers examine Confederate Currency seeking clues about the economic, social, and technological underpinnings of the South during the Civil War. Smithsonian curator and historian Richard Doty has discovered physical evidence of some of the extraordinary measures people undertook to keep their money in circulation. Stitches, postage stamps, pieces of newsprint, and even fragments of love letters were used to reinforce torn notes.
The careful repair of Confederate currency was done for reasons that had nothing to do with simple economics. Money has always been seen as an emblem of sovereignty. So if people simply allowed their money to disintegrate –and some must have been tempted in that direction, as the value of their money had shrunk almost to the vanishing point by the final months of the war– what did that say about their belief in the Cause?
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1861
maker
Keatinge & Ball
ID Number
1998.0063.0205
accession number
1998.0063
catalog number
1998.0063.0205
serial number
25624
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
2008.0108.0012
serial number
83920
accession number
2008.0108
One (1) 3 dollar noteFulton, Ohio Orphan Institute's Bank, United States, 1838Obverse Image: Steam ship in center. Small sailboat at center bottom. Allegorical scene at right, winged baby atop a lion.Obverse Text: STATE OF OHIO / 3 / ORPHAN INSTITUTE'S BANK / NO.
Description (Brief)
One (1) 3 dollar note
Fulton, Ohio Orphan Institute's Bank, United States, 1838
Obverse Image: Steam ship in center. Small sailboat at center bottom. Allegorical scene at right, winged baby atop a lion.
Obverse Text: STATE OF OHIO / 3 / ORPHAN INSTITUTE'S BANK / NO. 1107 / THREE DOLLARS / FULTON, OHIO / MARCH 4, 1838
Reverse Image: N/A
Reverse Text: N/A
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1838-03-04
ID Number
NU.NU76314
accession number
248278
catalog number
NU76314
serial number
1107
Between the winter of 1860 and the spring of 1861, eleven Southern states broke away from the United States to form a new country, the Confederate States of America (CSA).
Description
Between the winter of 1860 and the spring of 1861, eleven Southern states broke away from the United States to form a new country, the Confederate States of America (CSA). As a fledgling nation, the Confederacy faced two obstacles: to create a sense of national unity and to arm its troops to wage a modern war. Money connected both issues—it would celebrate the new nation and finance the war. On March 9, 1861, the CSA authorized a national currency.
Between 1861 and 1865, the new government issued Confederate currency on eight separate occasions. Each issuance pumped millions of dollars into circulation. Counterfeiters added to the deluge with freshly made fakes. The result was a staggering amount of paper money and massive inflation. The CSA responded to the problem by recalling, cancelling, and burning old notes to remove them from circulation. The first official recall on February 17th, 1864, came after two years of less harsh—but unsuccessful—efforts to reduce the volume of currency in circulation.
The problem of what to do with all of the recalled money fell to the Confederate Treasury Department, which enlisted the help of banks and depositories. Historian and numismatist Douglas Ball identified three primary strategies used to cancel currency. Machine-powered circular punches were preferred by the Treasury, while banks canceled currency by striking it with bank hammers, which left two x-shaped slices on the note. Depositories also used bank hammers, but sometimes opted to cut the notes with scissors, leaving two small triangles along the bottom edge.
Once cancelled, all notes were sent to the Confederate Treasury in Richmond, Virginia, to be burned. Some notes escaped destruction. At war’s end, the Union Army confiscated the notes along with Confederate government records to investigate a possible connection between the Confederacy and President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.
Today, researchers examine Confederate Currency seeking clues about the economic, social, and technological underpinnings of the South during the Civil War. Smithsonian curator and historian Richard Doty has discovered physical evidence of some of the extraordinary measures people undertook to keep their money in circulation. Stitches, postage stamps, pieces of newsprint, and even fragments of love letters were used to reinforce torn notes.
The careful repair of Confederate currency was done for reasons that had nothing to do with simple economics. Money has always been seen as an emblem of sovereignty. So if people simply allowed their money to disintegrate –and some must have been tempted in that direction, as the value of their money had shrunk almost to the vanishing point by the final months of the war– what did that say about their belief in the Cause?
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1863
ID Number
1998.0063.0445
accession number
1998.0063
catalog number
1998.0063.0445
One (1) 2 dollar noteUnited States, 1869Obverse Image: Portrait of Thomas Jefferson at left.
Description (Brief)
One (1) 2 dollar note
United States, 1869
Obverse Image: Portrait of Thomas Jefferson at left. US Capitol building in center.
Obverse Text: THIS NOTE IS A LEGAL TENDER FOR TWO DOLLARS / SERIES OF 1869 / E4964756* / THE UNITED STATES WILL PAY TO BEARER TWO DOLLARS / TREASURY NOTE / D / WASHINGTON / ACT OF MARCH 3D. 1863. / ENGRAVED & PRINTED AT THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT. / JEFFERSON. / NATIONAL BANK NOTE COMPANY NEW YORK.
Reverse Image: Ornate designs in green ink.
Reverse Text: II / 2 / TWO / AMERICAN BANK NOTE COMPANY, NEW YORK. / THIS NOTE IS A LEGAL TENDER AT ITS FACE VALUE FOR ALL DEBTS PUBLIC AND PRIVATE, EXCEPT DUTIES ON IMPORTS AND INTEREST ON THE PUBLIC DEBT. / COUNTERFEITING OR ALTERING THIS NOTE OR PASSING ANY COUNTERFEIT OR ALTERATION OF IT, OR HAVING IN POSSESSION ANY FALSE OR COUNTERFEIT PLATE OR IMPRESSION OF IT, OR ANY PAPER MADE IN IMITATION OF THE PAPER ON WHICH IT IS PRINTED IS FELONY AND IS PUNISHABLE BY $5,000 FINE, OR 15 YEARS IMPRISONMENT AT HARD LABOR, OR BOTH.
Location
Currently not on view
date patented
1866
date made
1869
depicted
Jefferson, Thomas
maker
Bureau of Engraving and Printing
ID Number
NU.78.5.023
accession number
1978.0941
catalog number
78.5.023
serial number
E4964756
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1861-10-21
ID Number
2008.0108.0015
accession number
2008.0108
When the Civil War began the Confederate Government still accepted United States currency. Initially they printed a million dollars’ worth of notes, like this one thousand-dollar note.
Description
When the Civil War began the Confederate Government still accepted United States currency. Initially they printed a million dollars’ worth of notes, like this one thousand-dollar note. Notes like this were treated more as bonds than bills since they were issued in such large denominations including $50, $100, and $500. At this time much of the Confederate currency was produced in New York City. Eventually other printing firms such as the Southern Bank Note Company in New Orleans would fill the void.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1861-05-28
ID Number
NU.73.11.0008
catalog number
73.11.0008
accession number
305034
One (1) 100 dollar noteVirginia, Confederate States of America, 1862Obverse Image: Confederate soldiers at left. In center, Lucy Holcombe Pickens facing right. At right, a portrait of George W. Randolph.Obverse Text: C / 100 / RICHMOND, DECR. 2ND, 1862 / NO.
Description (Brief)
One (1) 100 dollar note
Virginia, Confederate States of America, 1862
Obverse Image: Confederate soldiers at left. In center, Lucy Holcombe Pickens facing right. At right, a portrait of George W. Randolph.
Obverse Text: C / 100 / RICHMOND, DECR. 2ND, 1862 / NO. 117381 / THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA WILL PAY TO THE BEARER ON DEMAND ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS / A / FOR REGISTER / FOR TREASURER / KEATINGE & BALL, COLUMBIA, S.C.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1862
maker
Keatinge & Ball
ID Number
NU.73.11.0115
accession number
305034
catalog number
73.11.0115
serial number
117381
One (1) 10 dollar noteVirginia, United States, 1858Obverse Image: Portrait of James Madison at left. In center, two men in front of George Washington's profile with dog and ships in background.
Description (Brief)
One (1) 10 dollar note
Virginia, United States, 1858
Obverse Image: Portrait of James Madison at left. In center, two men in front of George Washington's profile with dog and ships in background. Warrior for pledge of security at right.
Obverse Text: 10 / STATE OF VIRGINIA / THE BANK OF THE COMMONWEALTH WILL PAY TO BEARER TEN DOLLARS ON DEMAND / NO. 1217 / B / RICHMOND, SEPT 4 1858 / CASHR. / PREST. / BALD, COUSLAND & CO. PHILADA & NEW YORK / AMERICAN BANK NOTE COMPANY.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1858
maker
Bald, Cousland & Co.
American Bank Note Company
ID Number
NU.73.11.1067
catalog number
73.11.1067
accession number
305034
serial number
1217
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1863
maker
Keatinge & Ball
ID Number
2008.0108.0013
serial number
16672
accession number
2008.0108
One (1) 20 dollar noteNew Jersey, United States, 1858Obverse Image: At left, factory blowing smoke. In center, ironworkers. At right, seal.Obverse Text: 20 / STATE OF NEW JERSEY / THE IRON BANK WILL PAY TO BEARER TWENTY DOLLARS ON DEMAND / A / NO.
Description (Brief)
One (1) 20 dollar note
New Jersey, United States, 1858
Obverse Image: At left, factory blowing smoke. In center, ironworkers. At right, seal.
Obverse Text: 20 / STATE OF NEW JERSEY / THE IRON BANK WILL PAY TO BEARER TWENTY DOLLARS ON DEMAND / A / NO. _ / MORRISTOWN, _ 18_
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1858
maker
Bald, Cousland & Co.
ID Number
1992.0281.1556
catalog number
1992.0281.1556
accession number
1992.0281
catalog number
92.281.1556
Bank notes, such as this one, were issued from private banks in the South. During the Civil War the South suffered from crippling inflation in part from the massive amount of Southern money in circulation.Currently not on view
Description
Bank notes, such as this one, were issued from private banks in the South. During the Civil War the South suffered from crippling inflation in part from the massive amount of Southern money in circulation.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1860-05-17
maker
American Bank Note Company
ID Number
1979.1263.01449C
accession number
1979.1263
catalog number
1979.1263.01449C
serial number
No. 798
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1943-07-01
ID Number
NU.269141.0004
catalog number
66.19739
accession number
269141
Between the winter of 1860 and the spring of 1861, eleven Southern states broke away from the United States to form a new country, the Confederate States of America (CSA).
Description
Between the winter of 1860 and the spring of 1861, eleven Southern states broke away from the United States to form a new country, the Confederate States of America (CSA). As a fledgling nation, the Confederacy faced two obstacles: to create a sense of national unity and to arm its troops to wage a modern war. Money connected both issues—it would celebrate the new nation and finance the war. On March 9, 1861, the CSA authorized a national currency.
Between 1861 and 1865, the new government issued Confederate currency on eight separate occasions. Each issuance pumped millions of dollars into circulation. Counterfeiters added to the deluge with freshly made fakes. The result was a staggering amount of paper money and massive inflation. The CSA responded to the problem by recalling, cancelling, and burning old notes to remove them from circulation. The first official recall on February 17th, 1864, came after two years of less harsh—but unsuccessful—efforts to reduce the volume of currency in circulation.
The problem of what to do with all of the recalled money fell to the Confederate Treasury Department, which enlisted the help of banks and depositories. Historian and numismatist Douglas Ball identified three primary strategies used to cancel currency. Machine-powered circular punches were preferred by the Treasury, while banks canceled currency by striking it with bank hammers, which left two x-shaped slices on the note. Depositories also used bank hammers, but sometimes opted to cut the notes with scissors, leaving two small triangles along the bottom edge.
Once cancelled, all notes were sent to the Confederate Treasury in Richmond, Virginia, to be burned. Some notes escaped destruction. At war’s end, the Union Army confiscated the notes along with Confederate government records to investigate a possible connection between the Confederacy and President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.
Today, researchers examine Confederate Currency seeking clues about the economic, social, and technological underpinnings of the South during the Civil War. Smithsonian curator and historian Richard Doty has discovered physical evidence of some of the extraordinary measures people undertook to keep their money in circulation. Stitches, postage stamps, pieces of newsprint, and even fragments of love letters were used to reinforce torn notes.
The careful repair of Confederate currency was done for reasons that had nothing to do with simple economics. Money has always been seen as an emblem of sovereignty. So if people simply allowed their money to disintegrate –and some must have been tempted in that direction, as the value of their money had shrunk almost to the vanishing point by the final months of the war– what did that say about their belief in the Cause?
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1861
maker
Keatinge & Ball
ID Number
1998.0063.0210
accession number
1998.0063
catalog number
1998.0063.0210
serial number
9958
Between the winter of 1860 and the spring of 1861, eleven Southern states broke away from the United States to form a new country, the Confederate States of America (CSA).
Description
Between the winter of 1860 and the spring of 1861, eleven Southern states broke away from the United States to form a new country, the Confederate States of America (CSA). As a fledgling nation, the Confederacy faced two obstacles: to create a sense of national unity and to arm its troops to wage a modern war. Money connected both issues—it would celebrate the new nation and finance the war. On March 9, 1861, the CSA authorized a national currency.
Between 1861 and 1865, the new government issued Confederate currency on eight separate occasions. Each issuance pumped millions of dollars into circulation. Counterfeiters added to the deluge with freshly made fakes. The result was a staggering amount of paper money and massive inflation. The CSA responded to the problem by recalling, cancelling, and burning old notes to remove them from circulation. The first official recall on February 17th, 1864, came after two years of less harsh—but unsuccessful—efforts to reduce the volume of currency in circulation.
The problem of what to do with all of the recalled money fell to the Confederate Treasury Department, which enlisted the help of banks and depositories. Historian and numismatist Douglas Ball identified three primary strategies used to cancel currency. Machine-powered circular punches were preferred by the Treasury, while banks canceled currency by striking it with bank hammers, which left two x-shaped slices on the note. Depositories also used bank hammers, but sometimes opted to cut the notes with scissors, leaving two small triangles along the bottom edge.
Once cancelled, all notes were sent to the Confederate Treasury in Richmond, Virginia, to be burned. Some notes escaped destruction. At war’s end, the Union Army confiscated the notes along with Confederate government records to investigate a possible connection between the Confederacy and President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.
Today, researchers examine Confederate Currency seeking clues about the economic, social, and technological underpinnings of the South during the Civil War. Smithsonian curator and historian Richard Doty has discovered physical evidence of some of the extraordinary measures people undertook to keep their money in circulation. Stitches, postage stamps, pieces of newsprint, and even fragments of love letters were used to reinforce torn notes.
The careful repair of Confederate currency was done for reasons that had nothing to do with simple economics. Money has always been seen as an emblem of sovereignty. So if people simply allowed their money to disintegrate –and some must have been tempted in that direction, as the value of their money had shrunk almost to the vanishing point by the final months of the war– what did that say about their belief in the Cause?
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1861
maker
Keatinge & Ball
ID Number
1998.0063.0203
accession number
1998.0063
catalog number
1998.0063.0203
serial number
2129
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
Feb. 17, 1864
date made
1864
ID Number
1998.0063.0145
serial number
77441
accession number
1998.0063
catalog number
1998.0063.0145

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