Winter & the National Currency, 1875

The US never put out a “Christmas” or “Winter” banknote. The closest I could find was a vignette of Washington crossing the Delaware. It was on a $50 National Bank Note, Series 1875, on the left.

For those unfamiliar with this piece of history, Washington crossing the Delaware River was an event that occurred on Christmas night in 1776, during the American Revolutionary War. That night, General George Washington led a contingent of the Continental Army across the river from Pennsylvania to New Jersey to march on Trenton. There, on the morning of December 26, Washington and his men surprised and defeated a Hessian garrison (German auxiliaries in the service of the British). This action revived the American Revolution.

The vignette is from a famous painting of Washington and his men in a boat, crossing a snowy and icy river.

If you read the face of the note, you can see it was considered the “National Currency.” It was privately issued by National Banks and was “secured by bonds of the United States deposited with the U.S. Treasurer at Washington.” To me, it is just a short step to replace “banknote” with “stablecoin.” Mirroring National Bank Notes, we could have a national digital currency, privately issued and secured by bonds deposited with the Fed at Washington.