The US issued its first national paper money
On this day · 10 March 1862
To pay for the Civil War, the Union printed legal-tender notes whose green backs gave them a lasting nickname.
On March 10, 1862, with the Civil War draining the Union’s gold and silver, the federal government began issuing United States Notes — the country’s first national paper currency. Authorized by the Legal Tender Act, the notes were not redeemable for precious metal; they circulated on the full faith and credit of the United States and had to be accepted for most debts.
The public quickly nicknamed them “greenbacks,” after the green ink printed on their reverse to deter counterfeiters. The earliest $5 note carried the Capitol’s Statue of Freedom and a portrait of Alexander Hamilton.
Nearly half a billion dollars in greenbacks were printed over roughly three years.
The experiment was bold and unpopular. Detached from gold, the notes lost value and stoked inflation, and after the war Washington labored to make them redeemable again. Yet they permanently shifted American money toward a federally managed, paper-based system.
Sources & references
2 referencesWell-established. Corroborated by 2 independent sources.
