I popped into my local bookstore during lunch, and this book jumped off the shelf: A Nation of Count

IGWT

I spotted A Nation of Counterfeiters sitting on the top shelf in the history section at a small independent bookstore that I like to visit. Stephen Mihm (Assistant Professor of History at the University of Georgia) wrote the book, and Harvard University Press just published it.

From the back flap: "Mihm's witty tale brims with colorful charcters: shady bankers, corrupt cops, charismatic criminals, and brilliant engravers. Based on prodigious research [a review of the notes supports this claim], it ranges far and wide, from New York City's criminal underworld to the goldfields of Calilfornia and the battlefields of the Civil War. We learn how the federal government issued greenbacks for the first time and began dismantling the older monetary system and the counterfeit economy it sustained." The table of contents suggests that the book covers the period from the early 19th century to the post-bellum years. Illustrations include a few pictures borrowed from QDB's Obsolete Paper Money Issued by Banks in the United States.

Has anybody read or even heard of this book? I can't wait to start reading!*


*I do not know the author or have any relationship with the publisher. My local bookseller offers me a cup of coffee on occasion; but, that nicety aside, I will receive no royalities, commissions, or other compensation for or from any sale of this book.

Edited to close quote.

Longacre

Thanks for the info. I need to find it on Amazon.

Pentimento

Contents

Prologue: Confidence and the Currency
1. Bordering on Alchemy
2. Cogniac Street Capitalism
3. The Bank Wars
4. The Western Bankers
5. Passing and Detecting
6. Ghosts in the Machine
7. Banking on the Nation
Epilogue: Confidence in the Country
Abbreviations
Notes
A Note on Sources
Acknowledgments
Index
List of Illustrations
1. Three-dollar note from Merchants Bank in New York, 1816
2. Five-dollar note from Abington Bank, 1859, stamped ¿counterfeit¿
3. Thirty-shilling note, printed in New Jersey, ca. 1764
4. Stephen Burroughs as a young man in the 1790s
5. Stephen Burroughs near the end of his life, early 1830s
6. Cogniac Street, 2001
7. Thousand-dollar note of the Bank of the United States of Pennsylvania, 1840
8. Lyman Parkes, counterfeiter, 1846
9. Counterfeit ten-dollar note, 1835
10. Satirical fifty-cent note, 1837
11. Daniel Brown, ca. 1830
12. Lucy Brown, ca. 1830
13. One-dollar note of the Kirtland Safety Society Anti-Banking Company, 1837
14. Detail of Kirtland one-dollar note, 1837
15. One-hundred-dollar note of the Bank of Gallipolis, 1839
16. ¿Hard Times¿ token, verso (back) view, 1841
17. ¿Hard Times¿ token, obverse (front) view, 1837
18. James Brown¿s house in 2005
19. ¿Raised note,¿ ca. 1848
20. The Counterfeit Note, 1859
21. Van Court¿s Counterfeit Detector, 1858
22. Thompson¿s Autographical Counterfeit Detector, 1849
23. One-dollar note of the Concord Bank of Massachusetts, ca. 1850s
24. The siderographic process of engraving bank notes, 1852
25. Doctored bank notes, ca. 1848
26. Bank note illustrating Waterman Ormsby¿s ¿unit system,¿ ca. 1851
27. U.S. five-dollar note, ca. 1861
28. U.S. one-dollar note, obverse (front) view, 1862
29. U.S. one-dollar note, verso (back) view, 1862
30. Buying counterfeit Confederate notes, 1863
31. Five-dollar note of the First National Bank of Decatur, Michigan, ca. 1870
32. Five-dollar note of the Stones River National Bank of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, ca. 1872
33. Hanging of Henry Wirz at the Old Capitol Prison, 1865
34. William P. Wood, ca. 1865
35. William Michael Harnett, Still Life: Five Dollar Bill, 1877
36. Ten-dollar Federal Reserve note, obverse (front) view, 1914
37. Ten-dollar Federal Reserve note, verso (back) view, 1914


Library of Congress Subject Headings for this publication:

Bank notes -- Forgeries -- United States.
Banks and banking -- United States.
Counterfeits and counterfeiting -- United States.

Find it at a library near you!

IGWT

<< <i>Thanks for the info. I need to find it on Amazon. >>


Amazon. Looking at the price charged by Amazon, I don't know how my local, independent bookstore stays afloat . . . except for spendthrifts like me.

mhammerman

Thanks for the cool link...can't wait to get a copy. Also, thanks for the TOC, Pentimento.

Dentuck

Mihm will be presenting on this topic at the Whitman Coin and Collectibles Atlanta Expo next month.

In a related vein, George Tremmel's Guide Book of Counterfeit Confederate Currency will debut at the Expo, and he'll also be giving a presentation.

CoinRaritiesOnline

Thanks for the info. Thanks to you, I just purchased it for $13.99 on Amazon.com

mhammerman

Well, I'm just into the second chapter and this is a must read for anybody interested in our money system. I'm not sure what to make of it all, hopefully, I'm in the hands of a skilled author but just thought to post and say thanks for the heads up. Maybe a later post after finishing the book, a book review of sorts.

messydesk

Sounds interesting. And here I thought it was going to be a book about China.

Coinosaurus

This sounds a lot like "Illegal Tender" (not the one by David Tripp) which chronicles the rise of the Secret Service amidst the 19th century counterfeiters. A good read which can be had for a few dollars on Amazon or Abebooks. Note, the original charter of the SS was to protect the integrity of the currency, not to do the presidential security stuff for which it is more known today.

IGWT

Well, I'm just into the second chapter and this is a must read for anybody interested in our money system. I'm not sure what to make of it all, hopefully, I'm in the hands of a skilled author but just thought to post and say thanks for the heads up. Maybe a later post after finishing the book, a book review of sorts.

I'm just a chapter ahead of you. Fascinating stuff! Maybe we should start an on-line numismatic book club.

StopMotion

Right up my alley! Can't wait to receive it!
Stop Motion