Hello fellow coin collectors!

Today my blog is going to be about the life and accomplishments of Abraham Lincoln (hence the name) and that his life gos to show that people who grow up in harsh circumstances and go through a lot of grief can still become famous people and can still do great things. Also, this blog is going to go over some of the kinds of currency that circulated/appeared during the Civil War.

Abraham Lincoln had the hardest upbringing that I could ever imagine. He was born on a bed of poles covered with cornhusks and spent the first seven years of his life in a crude hunters cabin in Kentucky. At that time, in the wilderness, most of the circulating paper money was essentially worthless. So instead people bartered things like hogs, venison hams, whisky, coon-skins and bear hides, and farm produce to get what they needed. After seven years of living in Kentucky, Abe's father bartered his farm for about 400 jugs of corn whisky and moved his family to the (then) wild forests of Indiana. The first snow was already falling when the Lincolns arrived in Indiana, so Abe's father quickly built what was then known as "a three faced camp" while today it would be called a shed. All it had was three walls and a roof of poles and brush. For the entirety of one of the worst winters our nation has ever seen, Abe and his mother slept curled up like dogs in leaves and bearskins on the dirt floor in the corner of the shed and eat wild game and nuts. During this time, Abe endured more terrible poverty than the thousands of slaves that he would one day free. 

In the autumn of 1818, a dangerous disease called "milk sick" came over the Buckhorn Valley of Indiana wiping out lots of families, Lincoln mom helped nurse a person who was sick, and as a result, got sick herself. Seven days later, she died. Tom Lincoln made a crude coffin and buried her without service or ceremony.

Lincoln had a very short, limited education, he walked four miles through forests to get to school, and had only 12 months of schooling. When he was 15 years old he just barely knew his alphabet and could read a little but with difficultly. 

Abraham Lincoln accomplished many amazing things later in his life despite the fact that he had a hard childhood. Once, in while living in Indiana, Lincoln helped float a flat boat down a river to New Orleans. After hearing that a gang of escaped slaves was planning to kill the all of the flat boats passengers and steal the boat, Abe stopped them by grabbing a club and using it to knock three of the intruders into the river and chased the others ashore, but during the quarrel, he received a scare from a knife of one of the slaves across his forehead and over his eye that he carried to the grave. He was also a captain in the Black Hawk war, was elected and re-elected for 4 years for the state legislature, and was a post master. When ever someone asked if he had any mail for them, he would pull off his hat and check to see if he did. And the last accomplishment that I am going to name here, (even though it is kind of obvious) he became the president of the United States of America. 

Now, the Civil War started soon after Abraham Lincoln became president, and I am now going to talk a little about what the coins and paper money that  circulated and came about during the war. Prior to the Civil War, the only money issued by the US was gold and silver coins ("specie") and only these coins were legal tender. Bank notes were issued by privately owned businesses and were redeemable for species on demand at the bank's office. The weren't legal tender. Notes like these only had value only if the bank didn't fail, and if they did, the notes became worthless.

 When Abraham Lincoln became president, he knew how important money was for the war effort. With this in mind, he appointed Salmon P. Chase as Secretary of the Treasury. Within a few months, it was clear that the costs of the ware would run far beyond the government's limited income from tariffs and excises. The Lincoln Administration sought loans from major banks, mostly in New York City. The banks demanded very high-interest loans of 24-36 percent. Lincoln refused to borrow on such terms and called for other solutions. 

The US Demand Note was authorized by Congress and issued in 1861. This was the first measure to finance the war. Congress authorized $50,000000 in Demand Notes. These notes bore no interest but could be redeemable for specie "On Demand". These notes were not legal tender but could be used to pay customer duties. 

During the Civil War there was a mass hoarding of coins and as a result, most disappeared from circulation. By mid-1862, there was a movement in Cincinnati Ohio to find a solution for the shortage of small change. As a substitute, a wide variety of tokens began to appear. By 1864, there were over 8,500 distinct types and over 25 million tokens minted. 

There were also some coins that appeared during the civil war. The first of which was the two-cent pieces, and towards the end of the Civil War the three-cent nickel and the Shield nickel coins made their appearance.

Sources: Lincoln The Unknown by Dale Carnegie (definitely recommend if you are interested in learning more about Abraham Lincoln)

and wikipedia

Thanks for reading this long and hopefully informative blog and have splendid day!