FREE: Civil War Massachusetts 1863 20 Cent Bill Frame Worthy Printable Scan

The listing, Civil War Massachusetts 1863 20 Cent Bill Frame Worthy Printable Scan has ended.

The high bidder will receive VIA EMAIL a Frame Worthy High Res Scan of the Civil War Massachusetts 1863 20 Cent Bill as pictured but without the "COPY COPY COPY"!

NOTE: this is a one sided scan.

Once professionally printed (Kinkos,Office Depot, etc...) this bill will most definitely be suitable for framing and display!

Massachusetts - 20 Cent, Mount Pleasent Apothecary Store, 1863, a Civil War "shinplaster" - Private fractional currency issued by merchants to make change in lieu of coins.

History: Not until it became necessary to finance the Civil War, did the United States have what could be considered a national paper currency. Before that the only paper money was provided by state-chartered banks estimated to number about 1500 in 1862, up from 1400 in 1856. Many of these banks did not stand on firm financial ground, nor were all of their dealings on the up and up. In addition, although many notes were beuatifully engraved, it was a time when printing techniques were easily counterfeited. Of the approximately 7000 different bank notes circulating during the Civil War, about half were spurious. For this reason even "good" currency from one state was not accepted in another, of was discounted up to 50%. Merchants could check reported bank failings and "bank note detectors" listing bad bank notes in weekly newspaper publications. In 1865, congress placed a prohibitive tax on all state bank notes. This led to the developement of the familiar check account business as a substitute.

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