This is a collection of currencies, documents and other objects meant to aid in the quest to understand the evolving trade in early America. Specifically, documenting examples of the many stages our predecessors reached when trying to develop a consistent national currency. Early colonists, even before their separation from England, were faced with financial issues. How were they to pay for goods? When they were still tied to England, they had limited access to British gold and silver currency, which rarely made its way around the colonies. For a time, Spanish dollars were used, but this too proved difficult. For this new nation to thrive, something had to change. A working economy was vital. It took roughly two hundred years to get from trading shells from Native Americans, to the first official Demand notes (greenbacks). From the first trade of wampum shells and Massachusetts counterfeit notes in the 1600's all the way to the first United States green paper money in 1861, this collection will look in on brief moments in this block of history.