When I was growing up, I knew Christmas was close when TV ads for Norelco shavers showed Santa sledding down a hill on a razor. Now I know the yuletide is near when I go into a Walgreens and see displays of candy canes, garland and wrapping paper. That happened the day after Halloween.
So it's time to start thinking about holiday gifts for collectors.
Given the economic climate, most might wish for a stocking filled with cash. Functional as that may be, it would fly in the face of the "reason for the season." Of course, historically, everyone has been attracted to money. And because Christmas and Hanukkah are both steeped in history, what about a gift that combines the two? Just published is an outstanding book chronicling America's history as reflected through money.
"America's Money, America's Story" (Whitman Publishing, $26.95, 224 pages) by Richard Doty is arguably one of the best books to recount the story of the country as related by money.
Understand, in our nation's infancy, money wasn't what's in your pocket right now. To that point, what do two yards of cotton, two pints of gunpowder, 10 pounds of pork, six knives, one hat and two small axes have in common? Answer: In 1703, any of those could be purchased with one beaver pelt. Sound archaic? That was a quantum leap over the trade in beads, shells or cacao beans that had previously been the standard.
Doty's book nicely transitions to pre-Revolutionary times, when crude coinage and early paper money were the specie of the colonies. Some early money was actually printed by Ben Franklin, who created the concept of imprinting leaves on the back of paper money. Franklin realized that, like fingerprints, every leaf is unique. Using that image on currency helped thwart counterfeiting. So did the printed admonition "To Counterfeit Is Death." Not much gray area there.
"America's Money, America's Story" goes on to chronicle counterfeit notes printed by Britain during the Revolution to destroy the economy of the colonies - a move that, incidentally, was quite effective.
Possibly the most interesting aspect of our early currency is that each piece of paper money was actually handsigned by two or three individuals - some of them also signers of the Declaration of Independence. Today, most of those are worth a small fortune.
Naturally, the discovery of gold in the United States and subsequent gold rushes take front and center in the book. So do the coins, currency and shortages during the Civil War.
Fast-forward to the coins and elegantly engraved paper money of the 20th century, how we fared moneywise during the Cold War and the commemorative coins of the past 100 years, and "America's Money, America's Story" profiles the story of the nation better than most any history book I was subjected to throughout my school years.
Peter Rexford writes for Creators Syndicate. Contact him at P.O. Box 50377, St. Louis, MO63105.
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