Specie suspension

In December, banks suspend specie payments. Gold still prices customs and foreign exchange. Greenbacks are next February.

Five-dollar demand note, 1861. Legal-tender greenbacks are authorized the next February.Public domain.

In December 1861 banks suspended specie payments. Gold coin still priced customs duties and foreign exchange. The paper used day to day was no longer the same thing as that gold.

United States Notes are authorized in February 1862. This page is the suspension, not the Legal Tender Act.

Greenbacks and the Civil War →