to those banks to redeem those notes was no small matter in those days. So as time went on, we're talking about the 19th century now, as time went on, there were questions that were logically arose, quite reasonably arose in people's minds about whether some of these banks really had the specie that they claimed they had. And in any event, you didn't know how good the regulation was of those banks and whether they would be solvent enough to be able to pay their liabilities. And although some banks were very reputable and their bills circulated at close to par, meaning like say a $5 note would really get you $5 worth of goods at any merchant's shop, there were other notes that if you presented a $5 bill, you might only get, I don't know, $4.25 or something worth. That's like one of the most fascinating things about reading history is you get kind of deeper down to the base layer of whatever it is. Today, we conflate, we synonymize the dollar with banknotes. We assume those two things (18/45)
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