HomeNumismatic TermsIn God Is Our Trust - Paper Money Inscription Explained

In God Is Our Trust – Paper Money Inscription Explained

February 10, 2024

1864 $20 Compound Interest Treasury Note graded PCGS Extremely Fine 40 and ex: James a. Stack, Sr. Features the motto “In God is Our Trust”. This note was sold by Stack’s Bowers on March 22, 2018, for $28,800 USD. Image: Stack’s Bowers. — 1864 $20 Compound Interest Treasury Note graded PCGS Extremely Fine 40 and ex: James a. Stack, Sr. This note was sold by Stack’s Bowers on March 22, 2018, for $28,800 USD. Image: Stack’s Bowers.

“In God Is Our Trust” is a motto emblazoned on a federal shield that is located in the bottom right corner of the $20 Interest-Bearing Treasury Note of August 15, 1864. An alternate version of “In God We Trust“. This note was issued four months after the Coinage Act of 1864 authorized the production of the two-cent piece, on which the new motto IN GOD WE TRUST was placed.

“In God is Our Trust” is actually one of two mottos invoking God on the note. On the bottom left corner is another federal shield, is one inscribed “God And Our Right”.

The usage of these mottoes at the height of the American Civil War illustrates the degree to which the North saw the conflict in religious, specifically Christian, terms.

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