Image & Republican Sovereignty
Negotiating the numismatic iconography of the Early American republic
TThe premise of this paper is that there was a debate among the Founding Fathers about what images were appropriate to use as representations of the new country on its money, and the form this money was to take.

This debate continued from the period of the Revolution right on through the early years of the Republic and reflected the larger issues of creating a new nation. This paper explores the subject through Congressional records, private correspondences, coinage and paper money of the period, and the Constitution, and will combine a political and economic approach to the questions posed.

The numismatic history of the Confederation in many ways mirrors the political history of the period. A weak federal government shared coining powers with semi-independent states, without the power to suppress private importation and counterfeiting of token coins (copper pieces used as small change).

National imagery based on classical themes eventually prevailed over those selected by the various states for their coinages, partly as a result of the need to form a clear break with the past—the forms and images of the Revolution and Confederation were discredited as a result of hyperinflation, massive counterfeiting and economic depression.

This situation resulted in economic chaos, which, when combined with the political turmoil of the time, clearly pointed to the need for change—a need to create a national identity. This chaos clearly pointed out the necessity for a more powerful central government and a single, national coinage—as was outlined in the new Constitution.

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