The Duke University Currency collection, 1746-1982

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Summary

Creator:
Duke University
Extent:
4 Linear Feet
4,896 Items
Language:
English.
Collection ID:
RL.00276

Background

Scope and content:

The Currency Collection contains 4896 pieces, 1746-1982, of which all except a small number of coins and tokens are paper currency. Most of this money is domestic, but there are a limited number of foreign items, some of them quite old and interesting. Approximately two-thirds of the collection dates from the Civil War and one-fourth from the antebellum period.

Acquisition information:
Collected by Duke University through gifts and purchases.
Processing information:

Guide by: William Erwin

Completed August, 1983

Encoded by Stephen Douglas Miller

Arrangement:

A variety of elements are involved in the arrangement of the currency within the above categories. The first criterion of arrangement is geographical for the colonial, Revolutionary, Southern states, and foreign currency, and for the currency issued by banks and other corporate bodies, businesses, etc.: by states, provinces, countries, etc. The Confederate currency is arranged first by denominations: 50ยข, $1, $10, etc. Part of the collection is deacidified and part is not, so some categories are divided into two sets on this basis.

Itemized lists have been compiled of all pieces of the currency, and the contents of these lists, which are not the same for all categories, are noted in the descriptions of the major categories. There are two sets of lists, one of which is kept with the collection and the other with the department's security copies of collection inventories. The lists in the security set are all filed together. Within the Currency Collection, the lists are divided, each folder of currency containing the list itemizing its contents.

The Information Folder filed in the first box includes a variety of material: information about the provenance of parts of the collection; reference sources; a copy of D. C. Wismer's "Descriptive List of Obsolete Paper Money: Part I - Embracing the Circulating Notes Issued by State Banks, Private Banks, Bankers and Corporations" for North Carolina published in The Numismatist during June-August, 1931; articles about early North Carolina currency; a poem about Confederate currency; an earlier description of the collection removed from the card catalog, etc.

The list in the Information Folder entitled "American Confederate State Bills Comprising over Eight Hundred Confederate State Bills, Confederate State Bank Notes, Confederate State Currency Notes, Private Scrip, Etc." (25 pp.) is dated August, 1949. It lists the joint collections of the late Judge Van Wart of New Orleans and of W. George Head of Wimbledon, Eng., formerly of Shelby, N.C. This list was apparently compiled by a dealer whose name is not on it. This list provides the provenance for a sizeable part of the Currency Collection.

The part of the collection entitled "Currency Issued by Banks and Other Corporate Bodies," including both antebellum and Civil War issues and currency from the South and also from other states, came primarily from the Van Wart and Head collections. They also provided the sources of a sizeable part of the North Carolina State Currency issued during the Civil War.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Contents

Using These Materials

Using These Materials Links:

Using These Materials

Restrictions:

Please contact Research Services Staff to inquire about restrictions on access to this collection.

Researchers must register and agree to copyright and privacy laws before using this collection.

All or portions of this collection may be housed off-site in Duke University's Library Service Center. The library may require up to 48 hours to retrieve these materials for research use.

Terms of access:

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information consult the section on copyright in the Regulations and Procedures of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

Before you visit:
Please consult our up-to-date information for visitors page, as our services and guidelines periodically change.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], The Currency Collection, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

Permalink:
https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/m1r31h