WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.020 I want you to imagine, just for a second, reaching 00:00:03.020 --> 00:00:05.679 into your wallet or your purse right now. Oh 00:00:05.679 --> 00:00:07.559 sure, just grabbing some cash at a coffee shop 00:00:07.559 --> 00:00:09.880 or something. Right, exactly. You are at a coffee 00:00:09.880 --> 00:00:12.640 shop, you pull out a one dollar bill to leave 00:00:12.640 --> 00:00:15.820 a tip. but instead of that familiar, you know, 00:00:15.980 --> 00:00:18.440 stoic portrait of George Washington floating 00:00:18.440 --> 00:00:21.199 in a little green oval. You pull out a massive 00:00:21.199 --> 00:00:24.440 pocket -sized neoclassical painting. Yes. You 00:00:24.440 --> 00:00:27.000 pull out a piece of paper that looks less like 00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:29.079 money and more like a masterpiece that belongs 00:00:29.079 --> 00:00:30.780 hanging on a wall. It's a completely different 00:00:30.780 --> 00:00:33.560 experience. And, strangely enough, it's a piece 00:00:33.560 --> 00:00:36.939 of paper that was once at the center of a literal 00:00:36.939 --> 00:00:40.000 national scandal. So, welcome to the Deep Dive. 00:00:40.140 --> 00:00:42.159 Glad to be here. Today we are looking at the 00:00:42.159 --> 00:00:46.020 1896 United States one dollar silver certificate. 00:00:46.640 --> 00:00:49.000 It's this bizarre moment in history where the 00:00:49.000 --> 00:00:51.240 government decided everyday pocket change needed 00:00:51.240 --> 00:00:54.479 to be well. controversial high end art. It is 00:00:54.479 --> 00:00:57.179 a really jarring image for anyone accustomed 00:00:57.179 --> 00:00:59.820 to modern currency. I mean, that specific piece 00:00:59.820 --> 00:01:02.840 of paper, which historians call the history instructing 00:01:02.840 --> 00:01:05.359 youth note, it perfectly captures a fleeting 00:01:05.359 --> 00:01:07.280 tension in American history. It really does. 00:01:07.640 --> 00:01:10.319 We're looking at an era where ambitious nation 00:01:10.319 --> 00:01:13.400 building collided with this really forceful attempt 00:01:13.400 --> 00:01:17.159 at public education. Right. And all of that ultimately 00:01:17.159 --> 00:01:19.840 crashed into the harsh practical realities of 00:01:19.840 --> 00:01:22.560 actually manufacturing secure money. Okay, let's 00:01:22.560 --> 00:01:24.420 unpack this because we need to establish just 00:01:24.420 --> 00:01:28.159 how visually stunning and honestly almost absurdly 00:01:28.159 --> 00:01:31.599 ambitious this dollar bill actually was. Oh, 00:01:31.659 --> 00:01:33.980 ambitious is the right word. Our sources focus 00:01:33.980 --> 00:01:37.200 on what the U .S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing, 00:01:37.200 --> 00:01:40.620 the BEP, called the 1896 Educational Series. 00:01:41.439 --> 00:01:43.400 And they took the word educational quite literally. 00:01:43.459 --> 00:01:46.079 I absolutely did. The one dollar note was entirely 00:01:46.079 --> 00:01:48.060 themed around the past while the two dollar and 00:01:48.060 --> 00:01:51.019 five dollar notes in the series focused on national 00:01:51.019 --> 00:01:52.980 progress in technology. Yeah, the government 00:01:52.980 --> 00:01:55.019 was doing far more than just printing a medium 00:01:55.019 --> 00:01:57.079 of exchange here. They were effectively printing 00:01:57.079 --> 00:01:59.000 a curriculum for the general public. Which brings 00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:02.280 us to the front of this dollar bill. Yeah. What 00:02:02.280 --> 00:02:05.359 numismatists call the obverse. Right. It features 00:02:05.359 --> 00:02:07.859 this sprawling allegorical scene designed by 00:02:07.859 --> 00:02:10.479 an artist named Will Hickoklo. He was a very 00:02:10.479 --> 00:02:12.879 prominent classical painter at the time. And 00:02:12.879 --> 00:02:15.340 you can tell. On the left side of the note, you 00:02:15.340 --> 00:02:17.479 have this woman reclining on a marble block. 00:02:18.239 --> 00:02:21.680 She represents history exactly she has a laurel 00:02:21.680 --> 00:02:23.780 wreath on her head an American flag draped across 00:02:23.780 --> 00:02:26.900 her lap And she is pointing at an open book and 00:02:26.900 --> 00:02:29.250 then sitting next to her looking on is a young 00:02:29.250 --> 00:02:31.870 boy. Right. Representing youth. Yeah. And if 00:02:31.870 --> 00:02:34.129 that was not enough visual information, the background 00:02:34.129 --> 00:02:37.009 features the Washington Monument and the U .S. 00:02:37.169 --> 00:02:39.729 Capitol building. Plus even more illustrations 00:02:39.729 --> 00:02:42.110 of open books anchoring the bottom corners. It's 00:02:42.110 --> 00:02:44.409 so dense. It feels like a miniature ceiling fresco 00:02:44.409 --> 00:02:46.330 you would see at the Louvre or something. Low 00:02:46.330 --> 00:02:49.030 did not leave much negative space in that composition, 00:02:49.030 --> 00:02:51.689 that's for sure. The density of the imagery was 00:02:51.689 --> 00:02:54.469 highly intentional. I just keep trying to imagine 00:02:54.469 --> 00:02:57.949 how every day people were supposed to use this 00:02:57.949 --> 00:03:00.379 to like buy a loaf of bread or a newspaper without 00:03:00.379 --> 00:03:02.460 feeling like they were ruining a painting. Yeah, 00:03:02.580 --> 00:03:04.960 you're just crumpling up classical art. You are 00:03:04.960 --> 00:03:08.580 folding up a literal masterpiece, creasing the 00:03:08.580 --> 00:03:10.620 Capitol building and shoving it into your pocket. 00:03:11.280 --> 00:03:14.319 It feels fundamentally at odds with the utilitarian 00:03:14.319 --> 00:03:16.800 nature of money. What's fascinating here is the 00:03:16.800 --> 00:03:19.340 underlying psychological motive of the government 00:03:19.340 --> 00:03:22.379 during that specific window of time. Tell me 00:03:22.379 --> 00:03:24.300 more about that. Well, the late 19th century 00:03:24.300 --> 00:03:26.879 in America was a period of intense demographic 00:03:26.879 --> 00:03:30.139 and social friction. The country was only three 00:03:30.139 --> 00:03:32.860 decades removed from the Civil War. They were 00:03:32.860 --> 00:03:35.219 dealing with the economic turbulence of the Gilded 00:03:35.219 --> 00:03:38.580 Age and experiencing massive waves of immigration. 00:03:38.759 --> 00:03:41.520 So a lot of change, very fast. Exactly. There 00:03:41.520 --> 00:03:44.340 was a desperate desire among officials in Washington 00:03:44.340 --> 00:03:47.680 to forge a sense of national unity. Makes sense. 00:03:47.979 --> 00:03:50.599 So when you think about the one object that touches 00:03:50.599 --> 00:03:54.180 the hands of nearly every single citizen, regardless 00:03:54.180 --> 00:03:56.180 of their class, their background, or where they 00:03:56.180 --> 00:03:59.000 live, what is it? Everyday commerce. I mean, 00:03:59.120 --> 00:04:01.699 the money in their pockets. Exactly. The Bureau 00:04:01.699 --> 00:04:04.080 of Engraving and Printing realized they had a 00:04:04.080 --> 00:04:06.819 captive audience of millions. Wow. By turning 00:04:06.819 --> 00:04:09.400 the currency into a literal canvas for civic 00:04:09.400 --> 00:04:12.979 instruction, they were attempting to bind a fractured, 00:04:13.240 --> 00:04:15.780 rapidly expanding nation together through shared 00:04:15.780 --> 00:04:19.220 symbols and a unified historical narrative. They 00:04:19.220 --> 00:04:21.600 were putting their version of American values 00:04:21.600 --> 00:04:25.420 directly into the hands of the people. Precisely. 00:04:25.560 --> 00:04:27.319 And they definitely put something heavy in their 00:04:27.319 --> 00:04:30.800 hands because the physical size of this currency 00:04:30.800 --> 00:04:33.420 is another crucial piece of the puzzle. Oh, it 00:04:33.420 --> 00:04:35.879 was huge. Think about the bills in your wallet 00:04:35.879 --> 00:04:38.660 today. Modern notes are roughly six inches long 00:04:38.660 --> 00:04:41.620 and two and a half inches tall. Yeah, the transition 00:04:41.620 --> 00:04:44.279 to the smaller standardized dimensions didn't 00:04:44.279 --> 00:04:47.740 actually happen until 1928. Meaning the 1896 00:04:47.740 --> 00:04:50.639 history instructing youth note was a large size 00:04:50.639 --> 00:04:53.790 note. Very large. It measured a massive 7 .38 00:04:53.790 --> 00:04:57.670 by 3 .18 inches. That is a huge piece of paper 00:04:57.670 --> 00:04:59.829 to be carrying around to buy groceries. It really 00:04:59.829 --> 00:05:02.189 is. Because of their sheer footprint, people 00:05:02.189 --> 00:05:04.850 actually called these large note varieties horse 00:05:04.850 --> 00:05:07.509 blankets. Horse blankets. That's hilarious. The 00:05:07.509 --> 00:05:10.110 nickname captures the public's bemusement perfectly. 00:05:10.589 --> 00:05:13.370 But from a design perspective, that sheer acreage 00:05:13.370 --> 00:05:16.790 of paper gave the BEP a massive canvas to work 00:05:16.790 --> 00:05:18.790 with. And they refused to leave any of it empty. 00:05:19.040 --> 00:05:20.939 Here's where it gets really interesting because 00:05:20.939 --> 00:05:23.540 the neoclassical art of the woman and the boy 00:05:23.540 --> 00:05:26.160 was not even the whole presentation. Not even 00:05:26.160 --> 00:05:29.160 close. The border of this giant note featured 00:05:29.160 --> 00:05:33.399 the names of 23 notable Americans all surrounded 00:05:33.399 --> 00:05:35.519 by intricate wreaths. They really packed them 00:05:35.519 --> 00:05:38.350 in there. I am looking at the list from our sources 00:05:38.350 --> 00:05:41.410 and they jammed an entire textbook index into 00:05:41.410 --> 00:05:43.829 the margins. It's quite a list. For statesmen, 00:05:43.910 --> 00:05:46.470 they squeezed in George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, 00:05:47.069 --> 00:05:50.129 Abraham Lincoln, John C. Calhoun, Henry Clay, 00:05:50.550 --> 00:05:53.509 Andrew Jackson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, 00:05:54.069 --> 00:05:57.230 Alexander Hamilton, Ulysses S. Grant, John Marshall, 00:05:57.730 --> 00:05:59.889 Daniel Webster and George Bancroft. And that 00:05:59.889 --> 00:06:02.850 is just the politicians and jurists. Right. Then 00:06:02.850 --> 00:06:05.230 they added military figures like Oliver Hazard 00:06:05.230 --> 00:06:08.060 Perry, William Tecumseh Sherman and David Farragut. 00:06:08.139 --> 00:06:11.160 Yep. And then writers Washington Irving, Henry 00:06:11.160 --> 00:06:14.220 Wasworth Longfellow, Nathaniel Hawthorne, James 00:06:14.220 --> 00:06:17.420 Fenimore Cooper, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. 23 00:06:17.420 --> 00:06:20.019 names in total. I have to push back on this design 00:06:20.019 --> 00:06:23.120 logic. I mean, if you are cramming 23 names from 00:06:23.120 --> 00:06:25.879 completely different eras, regions, and professions 00:06:25.879 --> 00:06:28.360 onto the border of a dollar bill, isn't that 00:06:28.360 --> 00:06:31.240 just visual clutter? It's incredibly busy. At 00:06:31.240 --> 00:06:33.839 what point does it stop being currency and start 00:06:33.839 --> 00:06:36.579 functioning as a really confusing flash card? 00:06:36.980 --> 00:06:39.620 Aesthetically, it's certainly bordered on overwhelming. 00:06:40.399 --> 00:06:43.889 But viewing this through the lens of 1896? America 00:06:43.889 --> 00:06:47.529 reveals a highly calculated move. Listing those 00:06:47.529 --> 00:06:51.129 specific 23 names was a deliberate attempt to 00:06:51.129 --> 00:06:54.310 aggressively canonize American history. This 00:06:54.310 --> 00:06:57.089 was a curated list of who the government officially 00:06:57.089 --> 00:06:59.610 deemed the great architects of the nation. So 00:06:59.610 --> 00:07:01.490 they were issuing an official roster of heroes 00:07:01.490 --> 00:07:04.509 for the public to memorize. It served as a daily 00:07:04.509 --> 00:07:07.790 inescapable reminder to citizens. They were forcing 00:07:07.790 --> 00:07:11.069 a shared cultural memory into everyone's literal 00:07:11.069 --> 00:07:14.089 pockets. Wow. Placing a writer like Hawthorne 00:07:14.089 --> 00:07:16.689 or an inventor like Morse alongside George Washington 00:07:16.689 --> 00:07:19.069 and Ulysses S. Grant, they were broadening the 00:07:19.069 --> 00:07:21.050 definition of what made the country exceptional. 00:07:21.230 --> 00:07:23.290 It wasn't just military might or political power 00:07:23.290 --> 00:07:26.110 anymore. Exactly. It was intellect, literature, 00:07:26.370 --> 00:07:29.050 and innovation. They constructed a complete, 00:07:29.069 --> 00:07:31.689 idealized story of American exceptionalism on 00:07:31.689 --> 00:07:34.269 a piece of paper you use to buy a beer. That 00:07:34.269 --> 00:07:37.810 is wild. But the ambition of that story is one 00:07:37.810 --> 00:07:39.949 thing. The physical reality of getting it onto 00:07:39.949 --> 00:07:42.410 the paper is where this deep dive shifts from 00:07:42.410 --> 00:07:46.540 ambitious to Honestly, slightly unhinged. Oh, 00:07:46.639 --> 00:07:49.540 the production process was grueling. The craftsmanship 00:07:49.540 --> 00:07:53.699 involved in 19th century currency is almost incomprehensible 00:07:53.699 --> 00:07:56.259 in our modern world of digital design and laser 00:07:56.259 --> 00:07:58.740 printing. Hand engraving something like this 00:07:58.740 --> 00:08:01.360 takes an unimaginable toll on the artists. It 00:08:01.360 --> 00:08:03.300 really does. Charles Schlucht was the master 00:08:03.300 --> 00:08:05.540 engraver tasked with the front of the note. Okay. 00:08:05.779 --> 00:08:08.060 And our sources show he began etching the design 00:08:08.060 --> 00:08:11.740 into steel plates in August of 1892. He didn't 00:08:11.740 --> 00:08:14.180 complete that single side until January 1st, 00:08:14.240 --> 00:08:16.920 1895. Wait, over two years? Over two and a half 00:08:16.920 --> 00:08:19.000 years, actually. Over two years of staring through 00:08:19.000 --> 00:08:21.620 a magnifying glass, etching microscopic lines 00:08:21.620 --> 00:08:23.939 into steel, just to create the front of a $1 00:08:23.939 --> 00:08:27.250 bill. And the BEP ultimately required 15 separate 00:08:27.250 --> 00:08:30.050 plates to produce the final note. The labor investment 00:08:30.050 --> 00:08:32.929 was monumental. It was. But to fully realize 00:08:32.929 --> 00:08:36.110 Will Hickok Low's grand artistic vision, the 00:08:36.110 --> 00:08:38.850 BEP had to make a critical and ultimately fatal 00:08:38.850 --> 00:08:41.330 decision regarding the engraving process. Right. 00:08:41.649 --> 00:08:44.470 To give the artist this huge uninterrupted canvas 00:08:44.470 --> 00:08:48.759 for the allegorical scene, the BEP chose, for 00:08:48.759 --> 00:08:51.899 the very first time, to completely remove the 00:08:51.899 --> 00:08:54.360 complex geometric patterns from the front of 00:08:54.360 --> 00:08:57.059 the bill. Yes, the lathe work. Those swirling 00:08:57.059 --> 00:08:59.539 intersecting lines just let them off the front 00:08:59.539 --> 00:09:01.879 entirely. And to understand the gravity of that 00:09:01.879 --> 00:09:05.179 choice, we need to look at how 19th century currency 00:09:05.179 --> 00:09:08.000 was protected. They relied heavily on that lathe 00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:11.000 work. It was their main defense. Exactly. A geometric 00:09:11.000 --> 00:09:13.799 lathe is a massive complex piece of machinery 00:09:13.799 --> 00:09:16.679 that uses intricate mathematics to carve perfectly 00:09:16.679 --> 00:09:19.879 continuous overlapping lines into steel plates. 00:09:20.179 --> 00:09:22.279 It functions like an industrial -grade spirograph. 00:09:22.440 --> 00:09:25.279 a spirograph that human hands physically cannot 00:09:25.279 --> 00:09:27.740 mimic. It was the ultimate security software 00:09:27.740 --> 00:09:30.639 of the 1800s. Wow. Counterfeiters could try to 00:09:30.639 --> 00:09:32.899 copy a portrait or a number by hand, but they 00:09:32.899 --> 00:09:35.220 could never replicate the flawless mathematical 00:09:35.220 --> 00:09:37.740 precision of machine -made lathe work. So removing 00:09:37.740 --> 00:09:39.700 it from the front of the bill was a massive departure 00:09:39.700 --> 00:09:42.440 from standard currency protocol. Huge. So to 00:09:42.440 --> 00:09:45.080 give the arts a bigger blank canvas, they stripped 00:09:45.080 --> 00:09:47.340 away the one thing keeping the money secure. 00:09:47.580 --> 00:09:49.860 Pretty much. That is the equivalent of taking 00:09:49.860 --> 00:09:53.179 the heavy steel log off a bank vault just so 00:09:53.179 --> 00:09:55.240 you have more room to paint a prettier mural 00:09:55.240 --> 00:09:57.480 on the door. It makes no practical sense. No, 00:09:57.480 --> 00:09:59.480 it really doesn't. And what I find so funny, 00:09:59.620 --> 00:10:01.519 such a wild contradiction in this production, 00:10:02.220 --> 00:10:04.100 is what they did with the back of the bill. Oh, 00:10:04.179 --> 00:10:06.679 the reverse side. The reverse side, designed 00:10:06.679 --> 00:10:09.940 by Thomas F. Morris, actually kept all that complex 00:10:09.940 --> 00:10:12.539 lathe work. along with some winged figures. Right. 00:10:12.919 --> 00:10:15.279 But for the portraits on the back, they featured 00:10:15.279 --> 00:10:18.519 George and Martha Washington and they just recycled 00:10:18.519 --> 00:10:21.700 old engravings. They absolutely did. They utilized 00:10:21.700 --> 00:10:24.139 an engraving of Martha Washington completed by 00:10:24.139 --> 00:10:27.100 Charles Burt all the way back in 1878. Unbelievable. 00:10:27.399 --> 00:10:29.600 And a portrait of George Washington done by Alfred 00:10:29.600 --> 00:10:33.399 Seeley in 1867. So they spent over two years 00:10:34.439 --> 00:10:37.019 painstakingly hand engraving a magnificent brand 00:10:37.019 --> 00:10:39.679 -new allegorical masterpiece for the front. And 00:10:39.679 --> 00:10:42.139 then for the back, they essentially hit copy 00:10:42.139 --> 00:10:44.980 -paste on decades -old portraits to wrap up the 00:10:44.980 --> 00:10:48.320 project. The juxtaposition is really stark, though 00:10:48.320 --> 00:10:50.779 it is worth pausing to note a very important 00:10:50.779 --> 00:10:53.299 historical milestone regarding that reverse side. 00:10:53.580 --> 00:10:56.269 Oh, what's that? That recycled engraving of Martha 00:10:56.269 --> 00:11:00.090 Washington on the 1896 silver certificate remains, 00:11:00.269 --> 00:11:03.450 to this very day, the last time a woman has appeared 00:11:03.450 --> 00:11:06.250 on circulating United States paper money. Wow. 00:11:06.870 --> 00:11:09.210 That really anchors this in a specific historical 00:11:09.210 --> 00:11:12.500 reality. 1896 was a very long time ago. It was. 00:11:12.679 --> 00:11:14.320 And if we connect this to the bigger picture, 00:11:14.840 --> 00:11:17.320 that decision to remove the lathe work from the 00:11:17.320 --> 00:11:19.240 front of the bill to accommodate the art was 00:11:19.240 --> 00:11:21.820 a profoundly consequential choice. It really 00:11:21.820 --> 00:11:24.100 set the stage for disaster. It represents the 00:11:24.100 --> 00:11:26.940 ultimate triumph of artistic form over practical 00:11:26.940 --> 00:11:30.620 function. The BEP prioritized the beauty of their 00:11:30.620 --> 00:11:32.960 educational message over the fundamental mechanics 00:11:32.960 --> 00:11:35.759 of what makes currency secure. And that single 00:11:35.759 --> 00:11:37.919 choice directly engineered the bill's demise. 00:11:38.059 --> 00:11:40.200 Completely. Which catapults us right into the 00:11:40.200 --> 00:11:42.980 downfall. Because for all the lofty ideals, the 00:11:42.980 --> 00:11:45.379 curated historical names, and the years of hand 00:11:45.379 --> 00:11:48.279 engraving, this pocket -sized museum was an absolute 00:11:48.279 --> 00:11:50.279 disaster in the real world. It really was. The 00:11:50.279 --> 00:11:52.139 educational series was printed starting April 00:11:52.139 --> 00:11:55.539 18, 1896, and the BEP pulled it from circulation 00:11:55.539 --> 00:11:58.419 just three years later in 1899. A remarkably 00:11:58.419 --> 00:12:01.399 short lifespan. Three years for a national currency 00:12:01.399 --> 00:12:04.500 is nothing. It's a very turbulent, brief run. 00:12:05.000 --> 00:12:07.639 The reasons why are fascinating, and they tell 00:12:07.639 --> 00:12:10.509 us so much about the culture of the time. Almost 00:12:10.509 --> 00:12:13.769 immediately the public dubbed these bills dirty 00:12:13.769 --> 00:12:17.129 dollars. Yes they did. Now looking at the historical 00:12:17.129 --> 00:12:20.090 facts from our sources the first major controversy 00:12:20.090 --> 00:12:23.690 stemmed from the artwork itself. People vehemently 00:12:23.690 --> 00:12:26.309 objected to the portrayal of unclothed women 00:12:26.309 --> 00:12:29.309 on the notes. It was a huge scandal. It caused 00:12:29.309 --> 00:12:32.590 such a massive public stir that the BEP actually 00:12:32.590 --> 00:12:35.909 had to reissue the notes in 1897. ordering the 00:12:35.909 --> 00:12:37.970 engravers to physically alter the plates to add 00:12:37.970 --> 00:12:40.169 more clothing to the allegorical figures. We 00:12:40.169 --> 00:12:42.549 are seeing a profound clash of cultural values 00:12:42.549 --> 00:12:44.549 here. Oh, absolutely. I mean, in the realm of 00:12:44.549 --> 00:12:47.190 classical fine art, allegorical nudity was entirely 00:12:47.190 --> 00:12:49.600 standard. To the artists and officials designing 00:12:49.600 --> 00:12:51.919 the bill, it represented purity and historical 00:12:51.919 --> 00:12:54.080 tradition. But when you place that classical 00:12:54.080 --> 00:12:56.879 art into the hands of the dickly, puritanical, 00:12:57.139 --> 00:13:00.519 Victorian -era American public, the context shifts 00:13:00.519 --> 00:13:03.279 entirely. Everyday citizens felt scandalized, 00:13:03.700 --> 00:13:05.379 finding that imagery in their wallets. There 00:13:05.379 --> 00:13:07.659 was another layer to the public debate, too. 00:13:08.159 --> 00:13:10.360 Contemporary complaints also centered on the 00:13:10.360 --> 00:13:12.500 skin color of the women depicted on the notes. 00:13:12.720 --> 00:13:15.440 Which points directly to the racial and social 00:13:15.440 --> 00:13:19.100 anxieties of 1896 America. Yeah. This was the 00:13:19.100 --> 00:13:22.120 era of Plessy v. Ferguson, a time when society 00:13:22.120 --> 00:13:24.700 was becoming increasingly legally stratified 00:13:24.700 --> 00:13:28.220 by race. Immigration was dramatically altering 00:13:28.220 --> 00:13:30.779 the demographics of major cities. It was a very 00:13:30.779 --> 00:13:33.100 tense time. In that highly charged environment, 00:13:33.559 --> 00:13:36.360 even the shading of an allegorical figure's skin 00:13:36.360 --> 00:13:38.820 on a piece of national currency became a proxy 00:13:38.820 --> 00:13:41.179 for intense debates about who truly represented 00:13:41.179 --> 00:13:45.029 the ideal. American identity. Wow. But as scandalous 00:13:45.029 --> 00:13:47.090 as the nudity and the cultural debates were, 00:13:47.509 --> 00:13:49.850 they were not the fatal flaw. No, they weren't. 00:13:49.970 --> 00:13:51.429 Think about the last time you checked a bill 00:13:51.429 --> 00:13:53.690 to see if it was fake. You probably tilted it 00:13:53.690 --> 00:13:55.950 to look for a color shifting number or held it 00:13:55.950 --> 00:13:58.070 up to the light to find a watermark. Right. Modern 00:13:58.070 --> 00:14:01.570 security features. But in 1896, your only real 00:14:01.570 --> 00:14:04.350 defense was the mathematical complexity of the 00:14:04.350 --> 00:14:07.730 engraving. And because the BEP removed that complicated 00:14:07.730 --> 00:14:10.309 machine made lathe work from the front to make 00:14:10.309 --> 00:14:12.690 room for the beautiful art, Counterfeiters had 00:14:12.690 --> 00:14:16.909 an absolute field day. The bills were catastrophically 00:14:16.909 --> 00:14:20.309 easy to forge. That is the ultimate bitter irony 00:14:20.309 --> 00:14:22.830 of the history instructing youth note. Yeah. 00:14:22.990 --> 00:14:25.429 In their desperate pursuit of an educational 00:14:25.429 --> 00:14:28.889 masterpiece, they abandon the foundational security 00:14:28.889 --> 00:14:31.649 features that protect the integrity of the money 00:14:31.649 --> 00:14:34.409 supply itself. It's just wild. A currency that 00:14:34.409 --> 00:14:37.129 can be easily copied by anyone with a printing 00:14:37.129 --> 00:14:40.450 press and some basic engraving skills is fundamentally 00:14:40.450 --> 00:14:43.870 worthless to an economy, no matter how beautiful 00:14:43.870 --> 00:14:46.429 the artwork might be. So what does this all mean 00:14:46.429 --> 00:14:49.350 for us today? We look at this story, and it is 00:14:49.350 --> 00:14:52.350 just dripping with irony. Oh, absolutely. The 00:14:52.350 --> 00:14:54.169 government set out to create this high -minded 00:14:54.169 --> 00:14:57.129 tool to unite the country, canonize its heroes, 00:14:57.590 --> 00:14:59.950 and elevate the minds of its citizens. And instead? 00:15:00.190 --> 00:15:02.490 Instead, they manufactured a scandalous, easily 00:15:02.490 --> 00:15:04.690 copied piece of paper that outraged Victorian 00:15:04.690 --> 00:15:07.169 sensibilities fueled a nationwide counterfeiting 00:15:07.169 --> 00:15:10.029 boom and forced the treasury into an embarrassing 00:15:10.029 --> 00:15:13.769 recall after just 36 months. It stands as a spectacular 00:15:13.769 --> 00:15:16.529 failure of practical design. Furthermore, this 00:15:16.529 --> 00:15:18.529 raises an important question about the very nature 00:15:18.529 --> 00:15:21.090 of money, which is what actually makes currency 00:15:21.090 --> 00:15:24.730 good? Is it the aesthetic beauty, the deep cultural 00:15:24.730 --> 00:15:28.629 meaning and the artistic ambition? Or is it purely 00:15:28.629 --> 00:15:32.190 security, utility and boring functionality? That's 00:15:32.190 --> 00:15:34.299 the real debate. The history instructing youth 00:15:34.299 --> 00:15:37.120 note proves, rather definitively, that the best 00:15:37.120 --> 00:15:39.240 -looking money can sometimes be the absolute 00:15:39.240 --> 00:15:41.820 worst currency. And it really is considered the 00:15:41.820 --> 00:15:44.419 best -looking. I mean, despite failing completely 00:15:44.419 --> 00:15:47.320 at circulating money, it is incredibly revered 00:15:47.320 --> 00:15:49.759 today by the people who study these things. Oh, 00:15:49.919 --> 00:15:51.700 collectors love it. The sources note that it 00:15:51.700 --> 00:15:54.179 ranks number seven in the 100 Greatest American 00:15:54.179 --> 00:15:56.879 Currency Notes. Guidebook authors Arthur and 00:15:56.879 --> 00:15:59.460 Ira Friedberg call it perhaps the most popular 00:15:59.460 --> 00:16:02.620 large -sized note in existence. and Ellen R. 00:16:02.740 --> 00:16:05.059 Fangold, a curator at the Smithsonian, considers 00:16:05.059 --> 00:16:07.360 the educational series among the most beautiful 00:16:07.360 --> 00:16:09.899 American notes ever printed. It achieved its 00:16:09.899 --> 00:16:12.879 goal of becoming a masterpiece. It simply failed 00:16:12.879 --> 00:16:15.539 at being money. It is the doomed horse blanket, 00:16:16.159 --> 00:16:18.240 a gorgeous giant piece of paper that tried to 00:16:18.240 --> 00:16:20.519 teach history but ultimately became a very harsh 00:16:20.519 --> 00:16:23.659 lesson for the government in the dangers of prioritizing 00:16:23.659 --> 00:16:26.399 art over security. A lesson they didn't forget. 00:16:27.019 --> 00:16:29.629 I want you, the listener, To think about this 00:16:29.629 --> 00:16:31.690 the next time you look at a modern dollar bill. 00:16:32.350 --> 00:16:35.049 You pull it out and it is arguably a bit boring. 00:16:35.279 --> 00:16:38.320 You have the standard portraits, the strict borders, 00:16:38.720 --> 00:16:41.899 and all those complex, dizzying, hard -to -copy 00:16:41.899 --> 00:16:44.539 geometric lines everywhere. The lathe work. Right. 00:16:44.600 --> 00:16:46.360 Well, now you know exactly why it looks that 00:16:46.360 --> 00:16:48.840 way. It was based back way because the one time 00:16:48.840 --> 00:16:50.960 we tried to turn pocket change into high art 00:16:50.960 --> 00:16:54.899 in 1896, it caused a national crisis. The Treasury 00:16:54.899 --> 00:16:57.740 learned a permanent lesson about utility. But 00:16:57.740 --> 00:17:00.279 before we finish our deep dive into these sources, 00:17:00.419 --> 00:17:03.519 there is one final detail on the obverse of this 00:17:03.519 --> 00:17:05.920 note that I think is worth pondering. Oh, what 00:17:05.920 --> 00:17:09.119 that? Amidst all the sprawling artwork, the reclining 00:17:09.119 --> 00:17:12.099 muses, the Capitol building, and the heavy wreaths 00:17:12.099 --> 00:17:15.759 of 23 famous names, there is a very simple, purely 00:17:15.759 --> 00:17:17.880 transactional string of text printed right on 00:17:17.880 --> 00:17:21.000 the front. OK. It reads, this certifies that 00:17:21.000 --> 00:17:22.819 there has been deposited in the Treasury of the 00:17:22.819 --> 00:17:26.000 United States one silver dollar payable to bearer 00:17:26.000 --> 00:17:28.059 on demand. Right in the middle of all that art, 00:17:28.240 --> 00:17:30.789 it is still just a silver certificate. Consider 00:17:30.789 --> 00:17:32.769 the psychological weight of holding this object 00:17:32.769 --> 00:17:36.769 in 1896. Not only was it this massive, scandalous, 00:17:37.130 --> 00:17:39.910 labor -intensive piece of fine art designed to 00:17:39.910 --> 00:17:43.230 forge a national identity, but it was also a 00:17:43.230 --> 00:17:46.400 literal physical receipt. It tethered all of 00:17:46.400 --> 00:17:48.660 that lofty, high -minded allegory, all of that 00:17:48.660 --> 00:17:50.900 dense history and civic instruction directly 00:17:50.900 --> 00:17:54.099 to a single, hard, heavy piece of silver sitting 00:17:54.099 --> 00:17:56.059 in a dark vault somewhere in Washington D .C. 00:17:56.140 --> 00:17:58.220 That is a brilliant point. It was art. It was 00:17:58.220 --> 00:18:00.059 education. It was scandal. But at the end of 00:18:00.059 --> 00:18:02.279 the day, it was nothing more than a paper promise 00:18:02.279 --> 00:18:03.119 for a piece of metal.