Preview
  • Bank Notes and Shinplasters

  • The Rage for Paper Money in the Early Republic (American Business, Politics, and Society)
  • By: Joshua R. Greenberg
  • Narrated by: Chaz Allen
  • Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Bank Notes and Shinplasters

By: Joshua R. Greenberg
Narrated by: Chaz Allen
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $19.95

Buy for $19.95

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

The colorful history of paper money before the Civil War.

Before Civil War greenbacks and a national bank network established a uniform federal currency in the United States, the proliferation of loosely regulated banks saturated the early American republic with upward of 10,000 unique and legal bank notes. In Bank Notes and Shinplasters, Joshua R. Greenberg shows how ordinary Americans accumulated and wielded the financial knowledge required to navigate interpersonal bank note transactions.

Greenberg argues Americans, by necessity, developed the ability to analyze the value of paper financial instruments, assess the strength of banking institutions, and even track legislative changes that might alter the rules of currency circulation. In his examination of the doodles, calculations, political screeds, and commercial stamps that ended up on bank bills, he connects the material culture of cash to financial, political, and intellectual history.

The book demonstrates that the shift from state-regulated banks and private shinplaster producers to federally authorized paper money in the Civil War era led to the erasure of the skill, knowledge, and lived experience with banking that informed debates over economic policy. The end result, Greenberg writes, has been a diminished public understanding of how currency and the financial sector operate in our contemporary era, from the 2008 recession to the rise of Bitcoin.

The book is published by University of Pennsylvania Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks

"Startling insight and ingenuity...illuminating...." (Journal of Early American History)

"Timely and important book...." (American Nineteenth Century History)

"A splendid book. (Stephen Mihm, author of A Nation of Counterfeiters)

©2020 University of Pennsylvania Press (P)2022 Redwood Audiobooks
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What listeners say about Bank Notes and Shinplasters

Average customer ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.