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< Template:POTD | 2014-08-10
U.S. dollars. Released during the American Civil War, these notes were used to pay expenses incurred by the Union during the war. They were popularly known as "greenbacks", a name inherited by their successors, the Legal Tender and Federal Reserve Notes
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Shown here is a $20 note, dated 10 August 1861, which features a feminine allegory representing either
Liberty, or perhaps America, in the center. The figure has a sword in her right hand and holds a striped shield, featuring a Bald Eagle at the top, in her left. This bill is scanned from the National Numismatic Collection at the National Museum of American History
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Banknote: Bureau of Engraving and Printing (image courtesy of the National Numismatic Collection, National Museum of American History)