INTRO — War is Hell (& It’s as Expensive as Hell, too)

Prologue

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1

TEN TUMULTUOUS YEARS   *1857 to 1867*

“Preamble” / Introduction

• At the Precipice: An Amicable Divorce vs All-out War

• William Tecumseh Sherman in the Banking Trade in S.F. and New York; Reversal of Fortune — to New Orleans — where he sees things “unraveling,” dines with a member of the Knights of the Golden Circle, and early in 1861 he says good-bye to the South and hello to a re-united relationship with his brother, Senator John Sherman

• The Gold Rush (2 Big Ones out West) — California AND Oregon both experience big strikes — a mighty help to the North — All of that gold is the Impetus for building the San Francisco Branch Mint (a.k.a. “The Granite Lady”)

• The Comstock Lode — Huge silver discoveries & introducing the Silver Senator — William Stewart — Nevada & Statehood

• The Coinage Act of 1857: Weaning foreign coins out of circulation and the end of large cents and half-cents

• The Knights of the Golden Circle – The Plan to take over Nicaragua and to Annex Cuba & Supposed Source of Private Money for the South

• The Incendiary John Brown Harper’s Ferry VA in 1859

• Oil (“Black Gold”) discovered in Pennsylvania — another coup for the Industrial Strength of the North in “the nick of time”

• The “Green Tint” Ink: To combat the scourage of Counterfeiting, the “Greenback” is born in Canada); emerging photographic technology helps the Counterfeiting Trade, at the same time . . .

• Electroplating reaches a new technological plateau — easier to make fake coins and bogus jewelry by putting a thin gold or silver coating on base metals

Chapter 2

WHAT WAS IN YOUR PURSE OR WALLET IN 1860?

A virtual “United Nations” of small change circulated freely in US commerce since the earliest days. Throughout the Civil War, foreign coins did continue to circulate, to help compensate for coin shortages . . . and British sovereigns provided a big financial cushion even in final days of the War. (The Confederacy had them . . .)

Chapter 3

NO SMALL CHANGE     PART ONE

Then and now — “Yesterday and Today” — pocket change disappears

Precious metals and military uses, hoarding, rumors about the ultimate fate of pocket change . . . here are two stories fromthe 1860s and today’s coin shortage appeals. Covid-era comparisons. Recent political / congressional hearings. In mid-2020, the US Federal Reserve pulls in the reins on small change coin disbursement from banks to retail customers. During the summer, signs go up in retail stores everywhere asking customers to use either exact change; signs also appeal to customers to sell pocket change to the store.

Two “Man walks into a Bar” style stories from 1861

Gambling Quote from “Long Remember” (by MacKinley Kantor)

Quote from Supreme court Justice Strong about “not enough change” in the land before the Legal Tender Act

The US Congress and the US Treasury respond by issuing both Fractional Currency and Greenbacks (“Fiat Currenty”)

• Abolitionist three cent note

• Town of Mobile, Alabama     25 cent note

• Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts     10 cents

• Railroad Scrip

• Gold Dust — pokes and pinches (more in The Dalles OR section of Three Western Mints)

Sequel to TENINO WASHINGTON 1930s and Now — saga of Wooden Money and national acclaim won — then and now

Federal Reserve officially lifts its restrictions on coin supply for the Nation’s banks in late September 2020

Chapter 4

TALES OF TOKENS, TAGS AND TALISMANS…AND TRADE

• Tokens throughout the Ages

• Civil War Tokens (and a remark about their predecessors, Hard Times Tokens)

• A Rare “United South” Token — and Talismans, Good Luck Tokens and Amulets

• Sanitary Fairs and Pennsylvania Saloon Tokens

• Centennial Souvenir Coins — North and South

• A Value System devised solely for Civil War Tokens

• Coins into Dog Tags

• TENINO WA and its Wooden Money (1930s and 2020)

Chapter 5

READY TO RUMBLE — YES! – READY FOR WAR?  Maybe

War is Here — How (and When) do we pay for it?

Comparing the North and the South — Industrial Might v. Dynamo of Dissent

The North Won the War “with One Hand tied behind its Back . . . .” (Shelby Foote felt the Union never unleashed all of its industrial might . . .)

Chapter 6

FINANCING THE SINEWS OF WAR

1. Cavalcade of Legislative Acts

-Confiscation Acts

-Legal Tender Act of 1862

-National Bank Act of 1863

-And more

2.  Tilting at Windmills: Hugh’s views

(The Work-View of Hugh McCulloch, First Comptroller of the Treasury, Secretary of the Treasury 1865 – 1869)

3.  The Treasury Girls and Francis Spinner (Women hired in large numbers by the US Treasury —

they honor Spinner with a statue in his hometown in the early 1900s)

Chapter 7

THREE SOUTHERN MINTS TAKEN IN TRUST

New Orleans Mint — the “Mighty” Mint — runs for a couple months, then it is shuttered until 1879, when the Morgan Silver Dollar is introduced

Dahlonega and Charlotte Mints are Collateral Damage in the War — both were closed for good in 1861

Charlotte mint briefly harbors Confederate Treasury in 1865 (See Flight of the Confederate Treasure Train)

Chapter 8

A TALE OF TWO HALVES  — (Two Half Dollars, that is!)

The Extremely Rare “Talisman” Confederate Half Dollar

    – Who Received the “Fab Four” Confederate Halves?

    – Where did they go?   Where are they Now?

    – The Jeff Davis Story: capture and losing his “Talisman” Half

The Northern Mockery of the Half Dollar Design

    – Now Harpers Weekly viewed the Coin in the Summer of 1861

Chapter 9

The Confederacy: Deo Vindici and the CSA Great Seal

Chapter 10

THREE WESTERN MINTS GET THEIR START

Denver, Colorado + Carson City, Nevada + The Dales, Oregon are all authorized by Congress and approved by Lincoln during the Civil War — The Dales Mint was built, but never made one coin . . .

Spotlight on The Dales — Oregon — located along the Oregon Trail and a major Site of a Second Major Goldrush — in eastern Oregon. Center of Indian Affairs military activity . . . The Dales Mint was authorized during the Civil War, but never opened — other very colorful tales from the Wild West Town, in the shadow of Mount Hood

Oregon Gold — Oregon Trail — Ezra Meeker and placing a marker at the Dalles — close to Mount Hood — home to several Indigenous Tribes — One-eyed Victor Trevitt and other beau brummels of the time — Gold Dust and $3 tokens

1926 Coin with Indian celebrating the Oregon Trail — brief discussion about Counterfeit commorative silver coins

Chapter 11

WHO PRINTED THE $1.7 BILLION IN CONFEDERATE PAPER CURRENCY?

Confederate Women on Banknotes — Real vs. Allegorical

The fate of Evans & Cogswell in Columbia, South Carolina

Other Major Confederate Printing Firms

Chapter 12

“NO LIVING PERSON’S LIKENESS . . .” Civil War causes laws to be passed that outlawed portraits of living politicians

Highlight the Sherman and Grant Note Fractional Note that was printed but tossed because of that Law in 1866

Chapter 13

KINJACKERS & COUNTERFEITING

The Green Tint and the Birth of Greenbacks

Well-known and nefarious Counterfeiters in the min-to-late 1800s

Slang Terms and Jargon

Counterfeit Coins — Reales and Green Mountain Metal Detecting

Chapter 14

TIMELINE FOR THE TEN TUMULTUOUS YEARS

Chapter 15

GOOD READS AND RESOURCES

Thumbnail descriptions of books, articles and other sources of the tales and accounts of these happenings during the Civil War, the Ten Tumultuous Years and through to today

Chapter 16

EPILOGUE

• “A billion here, a billion there . . .” Senator Everett Dirksen

• The Real Cost of the Civil War — David Wells, Economist

• George Santayana Quote — “Only the Dead have seen the end of War”

• *Quote from Civil War memoirs — “Peace . . . .”