Money Museum

1887 Postal Note, “Fee Three Cent,” Type V Object # 112 ANA 1993.3.8

This postal note represents an early federal experiment in everyday money transfers for average Americans. Designed by the Homer Lee Bank Note Company and produced by the American Bank Note Company, postal notes allowed Americans to send small sums of money through the U.S. Post Office. For a fee of just three cents, up to five dollars could be transferred across the country.

Created after the discontinuation of fractional currency, the system met a growing need for secure, low-cost payments to distant family, business, and creditors. Earlier notes required the sender to name the exact office where payment would be made. However, this later type could be redeemed at larger designated Money Order Offices, making the system more flexible.

Modeled partly on American Express money orders, postal notes undercut the private competition’s five-cent fee. Most were issued for modest sums – the 1884 average was just $2.01 – making this likely sample or test-use example of one cent especially unusual.

💬 Why would the federal government directly compete with private companies like American Express in the money-transfer business?

Follow along each week day as we spotlight one American coin, token, or note for every year of our nation’s independence.🪙 🇺🇸

Explore the collection so far:
https://www.money.org/money-museum/america250/

1885 Brown Back National Bank Note Merchants National Bank of Indianapolis Object # 110 ANA 2024.11.414

This Brown Back National Bank Note blends national story telling with practical banking design. The front features Benjamin Franklin’s legendary experiments with electricity on the left and “America Seizing Lightning” on the right – an allegory of the United States capturing, controlling, and claiming technological power long before electricity transformed daily life.

The back pairs a local or state emblem with a national eagle, balancing regional identity with federal authority. Unlike earlier National Bank Notes, Brown Backs used brown ink and displayed the bank’s charter number prominently on the reverse. Here, charter number 869 helped identify, sort, and redeem notes as they traveled through an expanding national banking system.

Fine engraving around the charter number also served as protection against counterfeiting, as blurred or indistinct details often revealed fraudulent notes.

💬 What other features on American paper money – from colonial notes to modern Federal Reserve notes – help banks sort, track, authenticate, or redeem currency?

Follow along each week day as we spotlight one American coin, token, or note for every year of our nation’s independence.🪙 🇺🇸

Explore the collection so far:
https://www.money.org/money-museum/america250/

1883 Liberty Head Nickel, No Cents Object # 108 ANA 2023.4.47

Introduced on January 30, 1883, the Liberty Head nickel replaced the Shield nickel as America’s circulating five-cent coin. Designed by Charles E. Barber, the new coin featured a Roman numeral “V” on the reverse – but notably omitted the word “cents.” That omission quickly caused trouble: opportunists gold-plated the coins, sometimes even adding reeded edges for better accuracy, and passed them as $5 gold pieces, nicknamed “Racketeer Nickels.” Later that same year, the design was revised to add the word CENTS.

Composed of 25% nickel, the nickel coin paved the way for the metal’s growing industrial importance. First used to replace the silver half disme, nickel would later become a defining component of modern American coinage, eventually replacing silver in circulating coins entirely.

💬 If a coin’s design can make fraud easier, where does responsibility lie – with counterfeiters or with the people who designed the coin?

Follow along each week day as we spotlight one American coin, token, or note for every year of our nation’s independence.🪙 🇺🇸

Explore the collection so far:
https://www.money.org/money-museum/america250/

1882 Pattern Nickel, Liberty Head Object # 107 ANA 1978.4.67

This 1882 pattern represents the testing ground for what would become the Liberty Head nickel in 1883. In 1881, Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber was tasked with redesigning the nation’s minor coinage in a more modern, metric-based system to replace the traditional grain measurements with grams. His proposed one-, three-, and five-cent coins shared a Liberty portrait and Roman numeral denomination within a wreath. However, only the five-cent denomination moved forward into circulation.

Pattern coins reveal another story, as well. Officially, they were experimental pieces used to test designs, metals, and striking practicality. Unofficially, the Philadelphia Mint developed a reputation for quietly supplying favored dealers and collectors with patterns, restrikes, and other rarities – sometimes in quantities far beyond practical necessity – blurring the line between legitimate experimentation and manufactured rarity.

💬 Why would one of America’s most traditional institutions quietly adopt the metric system when the nation did not?

Follow along each week day as we spotlight one American coin, token, or note for every year of our nation’s independence.🪙 🇺🇸

Explore the collection so far:
https://www.money.org/money-museum/america250/