Michael Bierut analyzes the world’s best and worst banknote designs
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Michael Bierut analyzes the world’s best and worst banknote designs
United States / 1 Dollar, 1862
Paper money came to America during the early 1860s, when Congress authorized the U.S. Treasury to issue bank notes to help finance the Civil War. Until then, hundreds of different kinds of currency were created by private banks. The first U.S. dollar bill was an exuberant affair, designed to resemble a formal certificate.
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