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The Continental Congress issued a great quantity of paper currency in order to finance the Revolution. The depreciation of this money and its economic effects produced a distrust of any national paper currency. For that reason the 1789 Constitution forbade the states to issue paper money. The Constitution was deliberately silent on the federal government's right to do so. However, there was no ban against their issuance by private organizations and local governments. This loophole was utilized to provide paper currency which was both convenient and necessary for economic life. Over 30,000 varieties of notes were issued by 1,600 different banks in 34 different states between 1790 and 1865. These figures do not include the issues of local governments and private businesses that were not banks. The history of this money ended substantially during the Civil War. The Confederate government and the various states of the Confederacy issued paper currency-during the war. The U.S. Congress authorized a national paper currency in 1861, and it is the only paper currency to survive the Civil War as a significant economic factor. Some currency and scrip continued to be issued at various times by businesses and local governments, but it was economically and quantitatively insignificant. It should be remembered, of course, that the federal government issued gold and silver coinage during this period.

The collection of Confederate and Southern states currency is very extensive, consisting of 3329 pieces. Of this total 2601 bills were issued by the national government, and 727 bills were issues of state governments. See also the Raphael P. Thian Papers for a large collection of Confederate and Southern States currency.