[20200123]IF11414_美国纸币的设计.pdf

https:/crsreports.congress.gov January 23, 2020Design of United States Paper CurrencyPaper money has officially been part of United States currency since the Continental Congress authorized a $2 note in June 1776. These first notes were designed as “bills of credit” to pay for the defense of the United States during the Revolutionary War. Between the ratification of the Constitution, which prohibited the coinage of money by the states (Article I, 10), and the Civil War, paper money was not issued. Rather, the government intermittently issued “Treasury notes” during periods of financial hardship, including the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War (1846), and the economic panic of 1857. In 1862, Congress authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to design and print paper currency, popularly known as “greenbacks,” to finance the Civil War (12 Stat. 532). Historically, the smallest denomination issued has been $1. Laws pertaining to currency, with a couple of exceptions noted below, generally have not specified how paper notes would look. Historically, U.S. paper currency was designed in large part to meet anticounterfeiting requirements. In 1863, Congress authorized the Treasury to i