Being a novice large-size paper money collector, I feel like I should have known this question when a friend asked me, so I'll pose it to you more experienced collectors: How did the "greenback" get it name? Yes, yes I know U.S. paper money has green backs but there had to be something that was first! Was the money printed in many other colors and then something came along with a monotone green ink that deserved its own nickname? What design inspired this moniker?
Greenback was mainly because of the color. It started with the Series 1862 notes. To prevent counterfeiting and altering of paper money, a patented ink had been devised that was difficult to erase and also difficult to imitate because it had a secret formula. The green instead of the usual black (which notes prior to 1862 were commonly printed in), made it also difficult to photograph. The Secretary of the Treasury ordered the special ink to be used for one side of the new notes. The distinctive color on the back of the notes caused Union soldiers who received them in pay to begin calling them greenbacks and the term caught on.
Close. But the "patent green" ink wasn't used on the backs of the notes; it was used on the faces, as an underprint to the black-ink design. See this 1862 $5 for an illustration (and notice the patent date, also printed in green, at the bottom below the large "5"). The idea was that (a) black-and-white cameras couldn't make a decent photographic counterfeit of a two-color note, and (b) the special green ink couldn't be bleached off of the note without taking the black ink off too. Unfortunately the patent green ink had a tendency to bleed through the paper at times. That's why the backs of the notes were printed in green, in order to hide this bleed-through a bit. (But the backs just used ordinary green ink, not the more expensive patent green.) The use of green backs became a tradition, even after the patent green ink passed out of use. But there've been exceptions, especially in the early days: the 1863 and 1875 National Currency had two-color backs (green and black, or occasionally brown and black); the 1878 and 1880 Silver Certificates had very dark black-brown backs; many 1882 Nationals had brown backs with green overprints; most large-size gold certificates had yellow-to-orange backs; and some of the Fractional Currency issues had a variety of back colors, even including purple in one case!
Sorry I was not clearer in my response. Thank you for the info on the green being printed to hide the bleed through, i did not know that. Gene
