Multiscale analysis of Benjamin Franklin's innovations in American paper money.

ABSTRACT: Benjamin Franklin was a preeminent proponent of the new colonial and Continental paper monetary system in 18th-century America. He established a network of printers, designing and printing money notes at the same time. Franklin recognized the necessity of paper money in breaking American dependence on the British trading system, and he helped print Continental money to finance the American War of Independence. We use a unique combination of nondistractive, microdestructive, and advanced atomic-level imaging methods, including Raman, Infrared, electron energy loss spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence, and aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy, to analyze pre-Federal American paper money from the Rare Books and Special Collections of the Hesburgh Libra

SUBMITTER: Manukyan K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10374172 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature