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ON VIEW
EXHIBITION
Money, Money, Money! Currency Holdings from The Historic New Orleans Collection
Through October 29, 2016
Williams Research Center,
410 Chartres Street
Free
Paper Backed
An exhibition of currency from throughout Louisiana history chronicles the rise of America’s first paper money.
American banknotes in the 21st century are known for their uniform size, green ink, built-in anticounterfeiting features, and universal acceptance as the United States’ only paper money. Prior to the American Civil War, however, the nation had no single currency, with the exception of the small-denomination coinage issued by the US Mint following the American Revolution. In the decades that followed, thousands of American banks, states, cities, parishes, counties, and towns printed their own banknotes for circulation in local, regional, and national markets. THNOC’s newest exhibition, Money, Money, Money! Currency Holdings from The Historic New Orleans Collection, features 200 original objects—from 18th-century French and Spanish coins and antebellum printing plates to Civil War—era parish banknotes—illustrating the history of money in America, with a special focus on Louisiana.
Louisiana’s first banks—the Bank of Louisiana and a branch of the Bank of the United States—opened on Royal Street in 1805. Each circulated its own notes, extended credit, accepted deposits, exchanged money, and engaged in a variety of other financial activities suited to a booming port town. By 1830 New Orleans boasted five banks, and just four years later that number had ballooned to 12. New state-chartered banks—such as the Bank
2 The Historic New Orleans Collection Quarterly