Coins, Currency & American History

The crash came in late October of 1929. Stock prices plunged. Fortunes evaporated. The Roaring Twenties gave way to the Great Depression.  Out of its depths emerged one of the most ambitious experiments in American economics. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal reshaped the relationship between government, business and everyday citizens. It was the birth of managed capitalism in the United States.  A...

The Roaring Twenties were a transformative era in American history. From flappers, speakeasies and shifting societal norms to rapid industrial growth and revolutions in personal finance, America was changing fast.  Installment buying and consumer credit surged in popularity as people across the nation embraced a new, modern way of life. But beneath the glamour of the Jazz Age, even bigger changes...

History remembers World War I for trench warfare, alliances, and fallen empires. But it also showed factories and financial strength could shape events in ways armies and navies alone could not. And it forced the United States to decide what kind of country it would become in a connected world.   America had long preferred distance and isolation. But modern industry and credit made separation hard...

America had become a nation of abundance. Wages climbed. Prices fell. New inventions were everywhere. For the first time, many could afford modern tools and conveniences. But what should all that prosperity serve? The question was asked by writers... naturalists... working Americans... and one energetic president who felt a nation needs more than comfort and commerce...  Presented by Littleton Coi...

In the early twentieth century, America was already a powerhouse of factories and production. But for most families, that industrial strength was hidden behind the walls of giant plants in places like Pittsburgh and Detroit. Until one man reshaped how the country worked, spent, and moved...  Presented by Littleton Coin Company. Visit us online at: https://www. LittletonCoin.com Are you a collector...

By the 1890s, the United States filled its own continent and began to look beyond its shores. And when the battleship Maine exploded in Havana harbor in February 1898, Congress declared war on Spain. The conflict lasted only a few months, but its effects reached far into the new century...  Presented by Littleton Coin Company. Visit us online at: https://www. LittletonCoin.com Are you a collector?...

The end of Reconstruction left the future of the United States wide open. Historians would later call this period the Gilded Age. And for the first time since independence, Americans stopped measuring themselves against Europe. They started competing with it... Presented by Littleton Coin Company. Visit us online at: https://www. LittletonCoin.com Are you a collector? Shop one of the largest inven...

The Civil War had ended. Reconstruction brought the Southern states back into the Union. Yet for many in the South, the wounds lingered. They searched for a way to make sense of defeat and move forward with a measure of dignity. And their search gave to what would become known as The Lost Cause... Presented by Littleton Coin Company. Visit us online at: https://www. LittletonCoin.com Are you a col...

The Civil War changed the American financial system. Its patchwork of coins and local bank notes gave way to more centralized federal paper money and one of the most practical – and collectible – innovations in our numismatic history: Fractional Currency...  Presented by Littleton Coin Company. Visit us online at: https://www. LittletonCoin.com Are you a collector? Shop one of the largest inventor...

When Confederate artillery opened on Fort Sumter in April 1861, America plunged into a war unlike any before in American history. It was a full-scale test of two societies, economies and financial systems. Armies would decide battles. But money – how to raise it, spend it, sustain it – would decide the war...  Presented by Littleton Coin Company. Visit us online at: https://www. LittletonCoin.com...

The decade before the Civil War is often described as a political crisis. But the 1850s were also an economic crisis, a cultural crisis and a crisis of imagination. North, South and West each had opposing visions of the future – and believed the others misunderstood America’s promise... Presented by Littleton Coin Company. Visit us online at: https://www. LittletonCoin.com Are you a collector? Sho...

The American economy exploded in the 1800s, fueled by no less than nine gold and silver rushes from Georgia and the Carolinas to California and the Klondike. People flocked to seek their fortunes. And new gold and silver coins were born, struck by six brand new United States Branch Mints...  Presented by Littleton Coin Company. Visit us online at: https://www. LittletonCoin.com Are you a collector...

In the early 19th century, Americans spoke of the western frontier with confidence. It was where Jefferson’s agrarian citizens would flourish. The land that would cure poverty and absorb the restless masses of the East. An investment that would pay dividends for generations. But by the 1840s, something changed. People began to see it as a costly promise rather than a realized future. And belief in...

The United States recovered slowly from the Panic of 1837. Trade resumed. Banks reopened. Wages returned. Eventually, the crisis passed and the country resumed its growth. But the panic left behind a revealing question: How did Americans actually conduct daily transactions? The United States was one nation in principle but many economies in practice. And its money reflected that reality...  Presen...

Economic stability depends on confidence. And in the early nineteenth century, confidence rested on metal. Gold and silver were trusted. Paper was tolerable as long as it could be redeemed. When confidence faltered, the American financial system strained under the weight of redemption demands. The Panic of 1837 revealed just how fragile this balance could be… Presented by Littleton Coin Company. V...

One of America’s earliest and most persistent debates was whether the United States should have a national bank. Hamilton proposed one in the 1790s. Jefferson opposed it. And in 1811, Congress let its charter expire. Less than five years later, it was back. But different regions had different needs, and different fears. Because this was more than banking. It was politics, identity, geography and p...

The late 1820s looked peaceful on the surface. The War of 1812 was over. The Monroe Doctrine had claimed a hemisphere. The Panic of 1819 was fading. And the Federalists were gone, leaving only one major party. For the first time, Americans imagined themselves unified. But beneath the surface, three regional economies were diverging. And into that divide stepped a man who would reshape both the pre...

The early 1820s were supposed to be an age of unity without party politics. But while America looked calm, stable and confident, the Panic of 1819 had shattered financial innocence. The industrial North, the plantation South and the expanding West were drifting apart. And in this moment of internal fragility, the United States issued one of the boldest statements in history... Presented by Littlet...

After the War of 1812, flags flew above rebuilt forts. Veterans were honored. And crowds cheered President James Monroe as he proclaimed a new age of unity. It was “The Era of Good Feelings.” But beneath the surface, the country was dividing economically, socially and philosophically. A financial crisis would soon shake the nation – and shape the century ahead...  Presented by Littleton Coin Compa...

The War of 1812 was a defining moment for America. Often counted a minor conflict, it was anything but. It revealed the United States was not one nation with a shared experience. There were three Americas. Each lived the war through a different lens, with a different idea of what the country should be. And the fissures exposed would echo all the way to the Civil War...  Presented by Littleton Coin...

Thomas Jefferson had won the presidency. His vision had triumphed. Federal power would shrink. State power would rise. His Louisiana Purchase doubled the nation’s size, but he set the stage for a decentralized republic. When the First Bank of the United States’ charter expired, Congress let it close. And in the silence that followed, cracks began to appear... Presented by Littleton Coin Company. V...

There comes a moment when every young nation must prove its reliability. For the United States, that moment arrived in 1803. The Revolution was over, and the early republic was beginning to find its footing. Purchasing the Louisiana Territory would be the cost of securing a future. But it was the country’s first great financial leap – and the world was watching... Presented by Littleton Coin Compa...

The year is 1790. The new United States is fragile. Loud. Full of hope, but also arguments. At the center stand Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. Their rivalry is the first great divide in American politics. And beneath the newspaper attacks and cabinet shouting matches is one central question: How should America protect the ideals for which it fought? Presented by Littleton Coin Company. V...

The Declaration of Independence has been signed. The War for Independence has begun. The American colonies have finally broken from the world's largest empire and severed themselves from its financial system. But for all their bravery, the Continental Congress now faces a question no amount of rhetoric can answer: How do you pay for a revolution?  Presented by Littleton Coin Company. Visit us...

Long before he became a Founding Father, Benjamin Franklin was a loyal citizen of both the American colonies and the British empire. He warned that taxes would bankrupt the colonies and limit the empire’s prosperity. But he was mocked and dismissed. And in 1774, he returned to the colonies with a new conviction. The time for diplomacy had ended. Revolution was coming...  Presented by Littleton Coi...