Greenbacks

The question came up a while back from a reader wanting to know when paper money started being used by the common man instead of gold and silver coin in the Old West. Actually, paper money has been around since the 1600s. During the time of the Revolutionary War the government began issuing currency. After the U.S. opened the Santa Fe Trail in the early 1820s that introduced Mexican silver to Americans. It was the discovery of gold in 1848 and few years later, silver that gold and silver coin