Title: 7 Accomplishments of Abraham Lincoln That Might Surprise You | Guy Counseling
Headings: 7 Accomplishments of Abraham Lincoln That Might Surprise You
7 Accomplishments of Abraham Lincoln That Might Surprise You
Abraham Lincoln and his accomplishments
1. Opening Settlement of the West through Homesteading
2. Authorizing The First Railroad Connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts
3. Beginning the Land Grant Colleges
4. Coining the American Greenback dollar
5. Collecting the First Income Tax and Founding the IRS
6. Beginning the Secret Service
7. Instituting the first official Thanksgiving Day
Summing Things Up
About John D. Moore
373 Articles

Content: National Parks Service
4. Coining the American Greenback dollar
“The almighty dollar,” that most American of institutions, was first printed under Abraham Lincoln in 1863. The U.S. Note currency, devised to finance the Civil War, is the immediate precursor to the present-day dollar. Astonishing though it may seem today, before Lincoln started printing the greenback dollar there was no federal currency in America. Numerous local currencies were issued by banks; in principle you could redeem your money for precious metals at the specific bank where it was issued. Andrew Jackson had set this stage when, in populist fury, he revoked the charter of the national bank 30 years earlier. The War made the dollar. Lincoln realized that borrowing from banks was inefficient and insufficient to fund the Union army. By printing its own bills, the government could have unlimited access to money at a favorable rate.