Money, Money, Money!

Here's where the protective glass in display cases comes in handy: The Historic New Orleans Collection invites visitors to explore over two hundred examples of their currency, including coins, paper notes, printing plates, political cartoons, counterfeit detectors, paintings, and interactive features. With no single U.S. paper currency prior to the Civil War, states, banks, companies, towns and most of Louisiana’s parishes printed their own notes. This exhibition highlights periods from early commercial banking, when New Orleans financial institutions held a prominent position in the trans-Atlantic cotton trade; to the Civil War, when a coin shortage led to the proliferation of notes; and finally to Reconstruction, when federal taxation on the printing of extra national notes limited production and codified currency to its modern-day form. The exhibit remains on display until October 29. thnoc.org.