Hugh Rockoff on Optimal Currency Areas, “Yellowbacks,” and Free Banking
Macro Musings with David Beckworth
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The History of the US Dollar
The US suspends gold convertibility at the beginning of the war and all the way up to 1879. So we have a fiat currency during that time of the greenback. Interestingly, there was a currency out west called the yellowback. The basic currency in California and on the West Coast was a goldback currency. But they remained on gold while the East was on the greenbacks.
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