Admittedly I read the article due to an interest in the argument related to $1 coin vs $1 bill and to see the motivation behind some of the push to abolish the $1 bill. The last part of the article proposed allowing financial institutions to produce their own bills denominated at $1 US. Interested to hear any opinions on this proposal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324085304579011053541175182.html
This is kind of an extreme view but if the gov starts privatizing things that are very much govermently and a sign of a nations uniqueness and embodiment, then what's the point in a national identity/nation in the first place if it was all to just be relative and outsourced.
In the very few places where non-governmental institutions issue paper money they do not issue it in small denominations - Northern Ireland the lowest denomination is the £10 note, Scotland it is the £5 note, with the exception of Royal Bank which still issues some £1 notes. In Hong Kong the lowest denomination issued by banks is the HK$10, and there the government picks up the slack with lower denominations. In the USA you have to factor what would happen if a Wamu type bank failure happened - imagine a bunch of $1 bill note holders running the bank for redemption.
I think that is an incredibly bad idea. They seem to be forgetting that banks were allowed to issue their own notes until the 1860's, and look what happened then.
Actually a little side pursuit in my paper money collecting is banks and municipalities that issued notes after the National Bank Act of 1864 without Federal approval - it did happen especially in the South of the USA - but I have a very rare note from Connecticut that is evidence that tax dodging issues were being emanated from the North also. The last of the "evasion" notes were issued in 1896 in Mississippi - that year the Federal Govt put the final clampdown on State issued currency.
More a post-bellum note than a feminine vignette pursuit, this note is quite fascinating - it was issued by Meriden National Bank Charter # 1382 of Meriden Connecticut. What makes this note particularly fascinating is that at the same time the bank was issuing $1 bills from the first charter series under the auspices of the National Banking Act of 1864! This note issue, especially bearing the name of the national bank, was likely in contravention of that act and it's prohibition against and taxation against private non-national bank issues of currency. At any rate this is now a very rare note with few appearances in public auctions in the last decade, usually when they are found they are remainders or specimens and not issued notes. Meriden National Bank was chartered in 1865 and issued large sized nationals of which only three reported $1 from the original series are known. The bank continued issuing national bank notes through the 1929 small sized issues.
