Small Size Paper Money: Emergency Money of the Great Depression

Peter Huntoon is the noted expert on U.S. paper money and author of books and scholarly articles. He is a longtime instructor at the ANA's Summer Seminar. If ever there was monetary excitement paralleling our current economic situation, it was the Great Depression. The U.S. banking system had collapsed, money was being hoarded, and commerce had slowed to a crawl. Today's bailouts were attempted back then under the guise of emergency issues of currency – cheap money that governments and institutions hoped would stimulate circulation and commerce.

In this video presentation you will see and hear about the Great Depression and its effects on society, the Emergency Banking Relief Act passed by Roosevelt on March 9, 1933, actions by the Federal Reserve and the issue of bank notes, issuance of Executive Order of April 5, 1933 that confiscated gold and the reasons and examples of the small size notes of 1933 and 1934.