Hesburgh Libraries

All about the Benjamins: Researchers decipher the secrets of Benjamin Franklin’s paper money

By Brett Beasley | July 17, 2023

All about the Benjamins: Researchers decipher the secrets of Benjamin Franklin’s paper money

A rare window into the early American monetary history — thanks to techniques from physics

Benjamin Franklin may be best known as the creator of bifocals and the lightning rod, but a group of University of Notre Dame researchers suggest he should also be known for his innovative ways of making (literal) money.

During his career, Franklin printed nearly 2,500,000 money notes for the American Colonies using what the researchers have identified as highly original techniques, as reported in a study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The research team, led by Khachatur Manukyan, an associate research professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, has spent the past seven years analyzing a trove of nearly 600 notes from the Colonial period, which is part of an extensive collection developed by the Hesburgh Libraries’ Rare Books and Special Collections. The Colonial notes span an 80-year period and include notes printed by Franklin’s network of printing shops and other printers, as well as a series of counterfeit notes.

Read the full Notre Dame News story.


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