LECTURE: HOW THE CIVIL WAR CHANGED OUR MONEY

When: October 14, 2026, 1-2:30 p.m.

Host: SPARK Lecture Series, Shepherd University, Shepherdstown, WV.

(Attend in-person or via ZOOM, $15)

The program will examine how the Ten Tumultuous Years™ (1857- 1866) – the Civil War Era – changed our money and our banking more than any other period. Foreign money (which was previously legal tender and circulated freely) was outlawed by the Coinage Act of 1857; the first paper money (nicknamed "Greenbacks," and not backed by silver or gold) was authorized by the Legal Tender Act of 1862. The National Bank Act of 1863 created a unified banking system. The phrase "In God We Trust" first appeared on coinage in 1864. And rampant counterfeiting gave rise to the Secret Service in 1865. Huge gold and silver strikes out West -- a boon to the North – caused authorization of three new U.S. Branch Mints (Colorado, Nevada and Oregon). The Civil War also gave birth to "emergency money", fractional currency, the IRS and to women working in both the U.S. and Confederate Treasury Departments.

Presenters:
Rick Lank and Rebecca Rush (Hagerstown, MD, representing the new "10 Tumultuous Years" educational non-profit project are both life-long learners, genealogy hobbyists, researchers, presenters, and storytellers connecting the numismatics hobby with historical events, shipwrecks, and the humanities. They have presented programs for American Numismatic Association (ANA), the Pennsylvania Association of Numismatists (PAN), San Francisco Historical Society (‘Uncle Billy Was a Banker"), the Washington County Free Library McCauley Lecture Series (The Furious Flight of the Confederate Treasure Train), and Civil War Round Tables.

To register for the program, see:
Spark Lectures - Fall 2026 (https://shepherdlifelonglearning.totalcamps.com/shop/product/663293)

For more information, contact Rick Lank at: pivot@10tumultuousyears.org

For more information on the SPARK Lecture Series, see:
Spark Lecture Series (https://www.shepherd.edu/spark-lecture-series/)

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