Women as America’s Money-Makers: 1795-1865 at the First U.S. Mint and the Civil War’s “Treasury Girls”

October 22, 2026, 12pm MT

This presentation will discuss how two federal acts and the Civil War created major opportunities for American women to “make money.” Under the Coinage Act of 1792, women worked as mint “adjusters,” weighing and filing ingots for $0.50 a day—less than men, but valuable work. During the Civil War, the Legal Tender Act of 1862 led to hiring female “currency trimmers” to cut greenbacks at half the pay of men. Women also signed Confederate currency, created commercial “store cards,” raised millions for the Union Army, and even operated as counterfeiters.

Rebecca Rush was a CPA and corporate executive financial officer of a public company. She is currently chairperson of a 501c3 not-for-profit organization. She continues her lifelong learning goals by researching and storytelling about how Civil War-era ancestors dealt with commerce, abundance, and deprivation. Her lens has included Women’s History, Tokens, Scrip, Currency, Coinage and Banking. She has presented or co-presented programs for Pennsylvania Association of Numismatists (PAN), Harrisburg Coin Club, Gettysburg Coin Show, and various Civil War Round Tables as well as presenting for Newman Numismatic Portal programs. Rebecca is a national board member of the Woman’s Relief Corp., the official auxiliary of the Grand Army of the Republic.