1791 - 1811 First Bank of the United States

In 1791, Alexander Hamilton, the Secretary of the Treasury, arranged for the transfer of the capital from Philadelphia to the banks of the Potomac in exchange for southern support for his Central Bank project. As a result, the First Bank of the United States was chartered by Congress for twenty years. The new central bank was to be modeled after the Bank of England. The Bank was bitterly opposed by several founding fathers, including Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, then later Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln. saw it as an engine for speculation, financial manipulation, and corruption.

1780 - 1790 Demise of Contintental Currency

Continental currency was now largely unsuccessful and headed towards collapse. There was an abundance of counterfeited notes in circulation that eventually aided to it's demise. On January 2nd, 1779, Congress stated that these bills "had been extensively counterfeited and particularly of late in New York, and spread through the country, enhancing the price of provisions and injuring our currency.'' On March 18th, 1780, Congress, alarmed at the great and rapid depreciations of its bills, which now stood at 40 for 1 in coin, proposed to retire them by means of taxes to be levied by the states.

During this time the United States had only three banks but more than fifty different currencies in circulation: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, script issued by states, cities and stores. It is easy to understand the that this sort of economy was instable and wide open to corruption, and counterfeit. In addition, the value and exchange rate was often outdated or unknown.

Politicians and supporters of a central bank argued that if the nation was to grow and prosper, it needed to establish a universally accepted standard coinage. Further they proposed that this would best be provided by a United States Mint, aided and supported by a national bank and an excise tax on goods and services.

1776 - 1779 Colonial & Continental Currency

Since the Declaration of Independence in 1776 through 1779 Continental currency was in circulation as the medium of exchange or money in America. Continental currency were banknotes issued during the American Revolution by the Continental Congress. Before America had won the war and our independence there was Spanish, English and French money in circulation. In order to pay for the war, and help simplify the monetary system we needed to develop one common currency for all the colonies. The famous Paul Revere designed the first coins for the Continental currency. This currency lost all of it's value as a result of the war; hence the phrase 'Not worth a Continental' . However, today this currency is highly valued by collectors.

It is also important to understand that monetary systems of the present day are an evolution of the principles in the great Mixed Money case of 1604, the circumstances connected with the Spanish Conquest of America; the Spanish Free Coinage Act of 1608, the British Free Coinage Act of 1666 and the invention of the coinage and printing presses.