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Note by Gem - Famed 'Chief' Note

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There is an interesting story behind the printing of this $5 silver certificate.

 

Running Antelope was a member of the Oncpapa or Hunkpapa Sioux tribe. The portrait used on the note came from a photograph taken in 1872 for the Bureau of Ethnology;

 

however, Running Antelope wore a headdress with three feathers that projected too high for a good image on the note.

 

To correct the problem, an employee of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing posed wearing a war bonnet belonging to another tribe, and the headdress was cut out and superimposed on the photograph of Running Antelope;

 

George F.C. Smillie engraved the design in November of 1899. The headdress, ironically, belonged to the Pawnee tribe, rivals of the tribe of Running Antelope.

 

Unfortunately, this didn't help relations between the Sioux and Pawnee or relations with the government.

 

chief_zps8517917f.png

 

As you can see, Running Antelope's real headdress was a lot higher.

 

Runningantelope_zpsde3688e1.jpg

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here is another interesting fact about 'greenbacks'

 

The greenback also resulted in the formation of a political party, known as the Greenback Labor Party, which ran presidential candidates from 1876 - 1884. Because the Republicanparty retirement of the Civil War paper greenbacks was deflationary, it had the effect of driving down prices and hurting farmers whose debt loads were the harder to manage. The Greenbackers promoted the issuance of lots of greenbacks, which would have the effect of keeping farm prices high.

 

While the party went nowhere, the inflationary monetary policy that they supported arose again in the free silver movement, Populism, and other progressive movements of the late 19th and very early 20th centuries.

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