When the Union treasury ran dry in 1861, Abraham Lincoln and Congress made a radical financial gamble: printing paper money backed by nothing but the full faith of the federal government. The Demand Notes and Legal Tender Notes that followed changed American currency forever, and the surviving examples rank among the most historically significant collectibles in all of numismatics.
Read More →From the first Legal Tender Acts of the Civil War era to the final small-size red seals retired in 1971, United States Notes represent over a century of American monetary history unlike any other currency class. This deep dive covers every major series, key rarities, survival populations, and what collectors should know before pursuing these iconic red-seal notes.
Read More →When the United States issued its first Legal Tender Notes in February 1862, counterfeiters were already at work before the ink had dried on the genuine articles. This deep-dive into the chaotic early days of federal paper money reveals how a desperate wartime government scrambled to protect a currency that was, by modern standards, shockingly easy to fake.
Read More →When the Secret Service made its first counterfeiting arrests in the autumn of 1865, it targeted a national crisis that had rendered roughly one-third of all circulating paper currency suspect. Understanding these founding cases gives collectors crucial context for authenticating and valuing Civil War-era fractional and Legal Tender notes.
Read More →