In 1862,
Abraham Lincoln created the
Greenbacks, a currency of free money issued by the
United States of America between 1861 and 1865. The currency was not based in gold and was not created by private banks.
Greenbacks were paper currency (printed in
green on the
back) issued by the
United States during the
American Civil War. They took two forms:
Demand Notes, issued in July 1861 (Congress authorized $50,000,000 in Demand Notes) and
United States Notes issued between 1862 and 1865. Eleven months after the
assassination of Abraham Lincoln - which took place on April 14, 1865 - Congress passed the Contraction Act to lower the price level so they could instate a gold standard. ==See also==