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After the demise of the Second Bank of the United States, which President Andrew Jackson refused to recharter in 1832, the country entered a period known as the "Free Banking Era From 1837 to 1863, states that enacted free banking laws allowed free entry in the banking industry. This meant that banks could issue notes on the condition that designated securities, placed on deposit with state regulatory authorities, backed them. In general, state authorities directed the printing and registering of bank notes and issued them to banks in amounts equal to the securities deposited. Free banks had to redeem their notes at par (face value) for specie (coins minted by the U.S. Treasury) on demand, otherwise the state would close the bank.
During this era, many different bank notes were circulating, making the ability to determine which notes were valid and sound, and which were risky, necessary for transactions to occur. As a result, bank note reporters--newspapers that, like today's financial pages, listed which bank notes were valid and what their market values were--were published and used as guides...