John Sununu may be waging a battle in the U.S. Senate to issue new $1 coins, but for the better part of New Hampshire's history it was paper money, not coins, that had trouble catching on. And the hype that comes with every currency change these days (colored twenties!) would be laughable to our New Hampshire ancestors.

During colonial times they were accustomed to new, locally-produced paper currency every few years - and knew the notes were practically worthless outside New Hampshire's borders. Then, through most of the 19th century they had their pick of dozens of different New Hampshire bank notes, with different bank logos (and different values) from places like the Amonoosuc Bank of Bath or the Pemigewasset Bank of Plymouth.

A pair of New Hampshire coin collectors are working on a book about New Hampshire currency, stretching from the state's first paper bank note in 1709 until the federal government finally standardized U.S. dollars in 1935, wiping the signature of local banks like the Mechanicks National Bank of Concord from the bills. They say interest in collecting paper money is a relatively recent phenomenon too - collectors, like early currency users, have not always known what to make of it.

"In general, paper money has had a very checkered career. Not everyone accepted it, and there were counterfeits," said David Bowers, the owner of American Numismatic Rarities in Wolfeboro. "It wasn't tradable from one colony to another easily and not at all over a distance. You could not leave Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and check into Charles Town, South Carolina, and spend it."

New Hampshire started printing paper money to facilitate commerce in the early 18th century, although the bills - hand-signed and dated - were often more like promissory notes, offering the bearer a small interest.

The bills featured lilting script and graphics, like a pine tree or a boat, and were traded along with foreign currency (the Spanish dollar was huge) and barter items, like oats. Still, they were a secondary source of money.

"At the time they were plentiful, but people were distrustful of paper money," Bowers said. "If you were a miser in 1770 and you wanted to put some money in a wall or basement, you would put silver or gold coins."

And although New Hampshire's colonial government authorized the bills and theoretically backed them with hard currency, it didn't have a monopoly. In the 1730s, a group of Portsmouth merchants fed up with a chronic shortage of currency decided to print their own notes - backed by commodities like pig iron - said David Sundman, president of the Littleton Coin Co.

Sundman is working with Bowers on the currency book.

Stuffing for boots

The colonial currency, and New Hampshire's own particular stamp on it, disappeared with the start of the Revolution, when the Continental Congress issued its own bills to be used throughout the states. But continental currency depreciated rapidly - by the end of the war soldiers were using it to stuff their boots - and the inflation tainted the idea of federal bank-notes for decades to come, Sundman said.

Instead, private banks issued their own paper money, complete with their own logos and insignia. A $50 bill from the Somersworth Bank, for example, features an industrial scene.

"It was branding, too, a little bit," Bowers said. "They tried to make the currency attractive, an artistic note was nice to have. As engraving became more perfected, notes became more beautiful. They had goddesses on them and sea serpents and chariots."

The value of the notes, however, varied widely. And although New Hampshire was fairly scandal-free, there wa not much to ensure that private banks actually had the money they said they did (Michigan's private banking system, for one, was a scandal-ridden mess). And the notes were still pretty worthless if you wanted to travel far out of town.

"You had this wild collage of notes circulating, thousands of different notes,"Sundman said. "It was a wild and woolly time."

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