Money as Mass Communication: U.S. Paper Currency and the Iconography of Nationalism

Abstract

This study offers a historical overview of U.S. paper money before and after its nationalization in 1861, drawing attention to its function as a medium of mass communication. Building upon recent scholarship concerning the social construction of money and national currencies, it is argued that U.S. currency is legitimated through visual strategies of rationalization and mystification, whereby the contractual obligations of the state are merged with the sacred bonds of national identity.

Notes

1. Despite the growth of visual studies within the field of communication (Griffin, 2001; Barnhurst, Vari, & Rodriguez, 2004), visual representations of nationalism— and American nationalism in particular—have attracted relatively little attention from communication scholars. For exceptions, see Sturken, 1997; Marvin & Ingle, 1999; Hariman & Lucaites, 2002; Fishman & Marvin, 2003; and Martin, 2006.

2. To observe that paper money is intrinsically worthless is not, however, to insist that money depends upon some commodity value (i.e., precious metal) to function as legitimate currency. This distinction engages a long and voluminous debate over the ontology of money. Following Ingham (2004), who argues persuasively that the physical form of money as a medium of exchange is irrelevant to its formal definition as money, this analysis suggests that the visual motifs on U.S. paper currency contribute to “an attempt ideologically to ‘naturalize’ the social relation of money” (p. 79).

3. To distinguish from book (ledger) money and electronic money.

4. Historical records indicate that emergency paper money was issued in Spain during a Moorish siege in 1483, though no examples are extant. Technically, the first surviving form of European paper money was produced in Leyden and Middelburg in 1574, and consists of cardboard coins used in lieu of coinage during a Spanish siege (Pick, Bruce & Shafer, 1996).

5. It is worth acknowledging that these parallel national stories do not have equal status in the popular memory. This is not surprising since the flag is a more successful national totem—indeed, as some would argue, it is the central totem of American civic religion (Marvin & Ingle, 1999). Though U.S. paper money, like most national currencies, attempts to evoke the religious aura of a national totem, it is a problematic symbol that is less sacred and far more profane.

6. Anyone who has traveled abroad may recall the experience of culture shock when handling a foreign currency for the first time. In this way, national currency exchange represents as a form of “translation.”

7. For additional discussion of the connection between language and money, see Shell (1982), Gray (1996), and O'Malley (1994).

8. Between 1861 and 1900, more than 160 different issues of U.S. currency were produced. However, between 1900 and 1929, this number was reduced by half, and by 1930 it was under 15 (Friedberg & Friedberg, 2001; Krause, Lemke, & Edler, 2002).

9. The methodological difficulties involved in the systematic analysis of paper currencies are discussed in Unwin and Hewitt (2001).

10. Colonial currency was similarly hand-signed, and a number of the signers of the Declaration of Independence also signed colonial currency. These notes are especially prized by collectors.

11. Hamilton, listed here among the founding fathers, was also the first Secretary of the Treasury.

12. Hillegas was the first treasurer of the United States.

13. Initial designs for the U.S. currency were solicited from professional artists and engravers in an open call for submissions published in the April 1863 edition of Thompson's Bank Note and Commercial Reporter (Dillistin, 1956, pp. 6–7). Each finished note, however, was the work of many hands. Individual engravers typically specialized in one aspect of production (e.g., vignettes, portraits, borders, lathing, or script) so that in the interest of security no single engraver created an entire note.