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Maybe you should update the wikipedia article on private currency. Here is an excerpt:
In the United States, the Free Banking Era lasted between 1837 and 1866, when almost anyone could issue paper money. While there are more restrictions today than in this era, it is still legal to create your own currencies.[dubious – discuss] States, municipalities, private banks, railroad and construction companies, stores, restaurants, churches and individuals printed an estimated 8,000 different monies by 1860 and can still do so today (such as Bitcoin). If an issuer went bankrupt, closed, left town, or otherwise went out of business the note would be worthless. Such organizations earned the nickname of "wildcat banks" for a reputation of unreliability; they were often situated in remote, unpopulated locales said to be inhabited more by wildcats than by people. Yet according to Lawrence H. White's article in The Freeman, "it turns out that 'wildcat' banking is largely a myth. Although stories about crooked banking practices are entertaining—and for that reason have been repeated endlessly by textbooks—modern economic historians have found that there were in fact very few banks that fit any reasonable definition of wildcat bank".[1] The National Bank Act of 1863 ended the "wildcat bank" period.
In the United States, the Free Banking Era lasted between 1837 and 1866, when almost anyone could issue paper money. While there are more restrictions today than in this era, it is still legal to create your own currencies.[dubious – discuss] States, municipalities, private banks, railroad and construction companies, stores, restaurants, churches and individuals printed an estimated 8,000 different monies by 1860 and can still do so today (such as Bitcoin). If an issuer went bankrupt, closed, left town, or otherwise went out of business the note would be worthless. Such organizations earned the nickname of "wildcat banks" for a reputation of unreliability; they were often situated in remote, unpopulated locales said to be inhabited more by wildcats than by people. Yet according to Lawrence H. White's article in The Freeman, "it turns out that 'wildcat' banking is largely a myth. Although stories about crooked banking practices are entertaining—and for that reason have been repeated endlessly by textbooks—modern economic historians have found that there were in fact very few banks that fit any reasonable definition of wildcat bank".[1] The National Bank Act of 1863 ended the "wildcat bank" period.
Thanks for this information. I'll look into.
