Greenback

For most of the early part of American history, the U.S. had no national paper currency. People who wanted to use money could use various foreign currencies, if they could get people to accept them. Or they could use what's called specie, gold or silver (often minted into coins). Or they could use bank notes, whose value depended on the bank and how far away the institution was located.

Then came the Civil War. To pay for the massive expense, the U.S. issued its first paper currency, the greenback (thus called because the printing on the back was literally green).

These notes were only issued for a few years during the war (which took place from 1861-1865, for those of you who flunked U.S. history). However, the color scheme stuck. When a more permanent paper currency came into play, it kept the green printing of the Civil War currency. Thus, the term "greenback" has remained a nickname for U.S. currency.

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Finance: What is the U.S. Mint?4 Views

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Finance allah shmoop what is the u S mint It's

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this tasty sweet smelling plant that can be grown in

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the united states So it's you know us mint But

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it's not the u S Mint that would be this

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place and these three places actually yeah there are currently

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for mints in use one each in philly san francisco

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denver in a west point So what exactly do they

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do there Take mint plants and convert them into delicious

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melt in your mouth treats so we can cleanse our

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palace after a hefty meal at our favorite garlic filled

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italian restaurant Well no not quite The u S Mint

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is responsible for one hundred percent of our coinage That's

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pennies nickels dimes quarters of this one Whoever that busty

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woman is if it can be found in a change

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purse It started out here or here or here or

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here Well the u S Mint was created by congress

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in seventeen ninety two when our forefathers realized that there

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was no way to make any of the jukebox is

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work So yeah we needed small change because well back

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in their day pretty much the only thing that cost

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over ninety nine cents was a thirty foot yacht or

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a trip around the world on a mule so we

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needed something other than paper currency that started at a

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dollar And while the u S Mint was born well

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the mints use precious ish medals but not so precious

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that they're not willing to melt them and crush them

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and form them into likenesses of dead presidents Well the

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medals are fed through a series of fancy machines until

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coins pop out on the other end Well typically the

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quarters and dimes and so on that we use on

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a semi regular basis but sometimes also commemorative coins Yeah

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that's included in there too Well like when the country

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turns two hundred years old when we want to recognize

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an important person or event from history or when you

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know workers that the men are bored of coining aeneas

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Now this is all what they do Additionally there's a

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facility at fort knox where all of the u S

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Bullion is stored and no gold and silver bullion not

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bullion Birbal yang's you difference in french but don't get

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any crazy ideas about robbing the place That would be

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like while trying to break into fort knox common misconception

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the mint doesn't print paper currency that would be under

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the purview of the bureau of engraving and printing which

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will also put your loved one's name on a champagne

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flute for just twenty nine ninety five So yeah the

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u S mint does coins The bureau does dolla dolla

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bills right Those annual crosstown softball cames really gotten pretty 00:02:31.958 --> [endTime] fierce

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