The USF Library's David P. Wollowick Currency Collection contains items dating from the 1760s to the 1950s, with the bulk from the1850s through the 1860s. During this period there was no centralized American banking system so states, townships, and individual banks issued their own currency. The "Free Banking" movement of the period proclaimed citizens' right to set up banks rather than the states, leading many businesses to print their own currency as well. Bank Notes of America, 1859 listed 9,916 notes issued by 1,365 banks, with roughly another 200 banknotes omitted from their listing.
