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Banknotes as Propaganda in the Free Banking Era

Wilson Purcell, Author

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Bank of Michigan One Dollar Note


The note displayed above was originally printed in 1860 by the Bank of Michigan. The central vignette on this note also reflects confidence in westward expansion through the use of the nation as body metaphor. The image shows two children sitting with cattle. The cattle are nearly as tall as the tree that seems to be just behind the main subjects. One of the children, who is one his knees, is roughly half the height of the tree (it is more difficult to interpret the size of the other child, as she is lying next to the boy). This is significant because of the girth of the trunk, leading the viewer to believe that it is a large, mature tree. While there is less symbolic value behind this image, the physical size of the animals and children in comparison to the tree imply the abundance of livestock in the West and the ability of settlers to effectively clear and work the land.

The note also speaks on the stability of the bank itself through the inclusion of the vignette of a dog's head in the bottom right corner. As Brownlee notes in his essay, the dog is a commonly used symbol of fidelity.
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