Fake banknotes mocked a US president. And are now worth thousands.
Popular Science...
If you’re a politician, it’s one thing to see your face and policies made fun of in a political cartoon. But satirical currency? That’s a whole different level of critique.
A special piece of this political history billed as “the most unhinged banknote ever printed” recently sold for a whopping $4,800. This fake bank note lampoons the terrible banking policy under cheese-loving President Andrew Jackson and offers us a window into understanding the political slings and arrows tossed around during the Hard Feelings Era, a real historical era from 1832 to 1844 named for a severe economic downturn linked to bad banking practices.
The Locofoco Party and a big fiscal panic
The valuable paper bill is a “Great Loco Foco Juggernaut,” named after the Locofoco Party. This radical wing of the Democratic Party was organized in New York City in 1835. They opposed state banks, paper money, tariffs, monopolies, and financial policies that they deemed antidemocratic and conducive to special privilege. The unofficial bank note satirizes the Panic of 1837, a major economic depression largely caused by President Jackson.
“Andrew Jackson’s opposition to a central bank made state-chartered local banks much more robust players in the growing economy, but their protections were not as robust as the Federally chartered Second Bank of the United States,” John Kraljevich, the Director of Numismatic Americana at Stack’s Bowers Galleries who auctioned off this banknote, tells Popular Science.
Simply speaking, the president gave the less regulated banks more control, which led to several misguided loans as more Americans settled in the west.
Speculators were given plenty of credit from these smaller banks to purchase land in the western United States. All of that easy credit and paper money exceeded how much cash they had on hand causing a risky economic land bubble, not so different from the 2008 housing crisis.
“When the federal government insisted on payment for land in gold or silver, many of those bank loans went bust, banks went under, and specific payments, [which are] payments from banks in gold and silver, were suspended,” Kraljevich explains.
As a result, the circulating money supply was made of unbacked paper money with no real value. The bills were often called shinplasters, in reference to how they were put inside of boots to keep the feet dry. “They were as worthless as the satirical notes that imitated them and lampooned the policies that created them,” says Kraljevich.
With the financial system and public confidence in it unraveling, the country fell into the Hard Times Era, which some weathered with satirical currency.
“The satirical notes from the Hard Times Era were made by mostly unknown private individuals, produced to sell to adherents of a particular political viewpoint, not unlike political novelties today,” says Kraljevich.
Political conventions are full of “novelties,” such as little trinkets, posters, clothing, and more expressing opinions. The now infamous red Make America Great Again hats and signs calling to “Lock Her Up” are some of the more memorable campaign memorabilia from the 2016 presidential election between Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton.
The ‘Great Loco Foco Juggernaut’s’ symbolism
In the particularly blistering note recently sold at auction, President Jackson, his then Vice President and future president Martin Van Buren, and their allies are depicted as animals and symbols of chaos. Martin Van Buren is depicted as a cat riding a “2,000 Jack Ass Power” wagon that is being pulled away, symbolizing the Locofoco Party.
In one corner, President Jackson is shown as an old maid that is tramping on the “Vote of Congress, People’s Rights, and Common Sense.” Jackson is also depicted as an emperor, holding a flag of the U.S. Constitution and an oar of veto power, referencing his influential and despised “Kitchen Cabinet.” This informal group of unelected friends and advisors influenced Jackson’s first term, much to the ire of Congress.
Most of these paper notes were issued anonymously to help protect a business from backlash. Others were boldly signed by the printers.
“The extraordinary Loco Foco Juggernaut note is signed by its well known engraver, the artist and actor David Claypoole Johnston, a Boston printmaker who became one of America’s highest profile cartoonists in his era,” says Kraljevich.
Many New Englanders like Johnston were not exactly fans of Jackson’s so the printer’s politics were likely aligned with anti-Jackson viewpoints shown on the bill. He also could have been looking to make a quick buck by selling the satirical bill.
Political commentary that is “not going anywhere”
Even though the Great Loco Foco Juggernaut note was not put in circulation, using currency as a way to lampoon political leaders was not exclusive to the turbulent days of Andrew Jackson. During the Roman empire, a process called damnatio memoriae removed the busts of unpopular emperors from circulating coins.
According to Kraljevich, currency satirists also “engraved horns on the Pope, put hats or pipes on portraits, or removed the clothes from Miss Liberty.”
By modern times, fake banknotes that satirized politicians or advertised goods became more popular. During the 1968 presidential election between Republican Richard Nixon, Democrat Hubert Humphrey, and independent candidate George Wallace, civil rights activist and write-in presidential candidate Dick Gregory issued several satiral banknotes. When the Secret Service questioned him about counterfeiting money, Gregory told them that no one who looked like him (a Black man) would ever be on a real piece of currency.
Stuart Lutz/Gado
“A satirical answer about the state of race relations that underscored why this kind of culture is still vital and interesting,” says Kraljevich.
And this tradition of using money to either prop up politicians or take them down continues to this day. These depictions will offer future historians and numismatists—people who study currency—an idea of today’s political debates and landscape.
“The fact that satirical bank notes depict Andrew Jackson as an emperor by his enemies and Donald Trump in a similar way by his supporters suggests that this method of political commentary is ancient and not going anywhere.”
In That Time When, Popular Science tells the weirdest, surprising, and little-known stories that shaped science, engineering, and innovation.
The post Fake banknotes mocked a US president. And are now worth thousands. appeared first on Popular Science.