Redeemable: Baltimore’s $2 Bill and the Making of American Currency

Redeemable: Baltimore’s $2 Bill and the Making of American Currency

Date

Jul 07 2019 - Aug 11 2019
, 10AM- 5PM

A JMM Lobby Exhibit on view Sunday, July 7 – Sunday, August 11, 2019

You may or may not be wearing a necktie or a purse.  You might have donned a beautiful head covering this morning or put on comfortable walking shoes.  But whatever else you are wearing, we feel confident you are carrying (or wish you were carrying!) the ultimate accessory – it includes an elaborate engraved portrait of a person you have never met – it is American money.

Image courtesy of the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution, via.

More than 250 years ago Annapolis printer Jonas Green produced a slip of paper for the colonial government of Maryland, in defiance of British authority. This slip announced on its front a new denomination – something called the “dollar,” and on its back the rather ominous message: “Tis Death to Counterfeit.”

During the ensuing decades, both governments and private firms would struggle to persuade people that a) a piece of paper or metal was actually worth something and b) that the piece of paper or metal was genuine.  Members of  Maryland’s Jewish community played a small but not insignificant role in these struggles.  This exhibit documents a handful of their contributions.

Photos of Exhibit in JMM Lobby


Redeemable: Baltimore’s $2 Bill and the Making of American Currency was made possible in part by the generous support of Morris W. Offit.


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