Our founding fathers did not fill our money with these symbols. They did not even establish a central bank. Prior to the establishment of the Federal Reserve System, there WAS NO CENTRAL BANK, and the US Government did not even print most money. Private banks printed their own money which was backed by gold they had stored in their own vaults and which a person with one of their certificates could appear at the bank and demand to exchange that certificate for its value in legitimate gold coin, minted by the US government mint, which certified it contained 90% gold at a certain weight in each coin.
Those symbols appeared when the Federal Reserve banks started issuing DEMAND NOTES, not gold or silver certificates. . . a note is an IOU. Essentially a piece of paper representing a DEBT. That money was BORROWED into existence from the Federal Reserve Bank. . . borrowed by the central government against future tax collections, and guaranteed by future tax payers that they would pay its face value back on demand.
The only previous times the government printed fiat notes was during the Civil War to fund the war and during the Revolutionary War. Not worth a Green Back? Not worth a Continental? Those were previous fiat note currency. . . which were essentially worthless when the government reneged on exchanging them. People wanted currency printed and distributed by LOCAL BANKS, and it didn't matter WHAT local banks. I've once had a $5 bill with Santa Claus' picture on it that was perfectly legal from the 1850s issued by a Boston Bank. . . exchangeable for $5 in silver coin.
This bill was honored anywhere and could be exchanged anywhere. . . and was. . . but you can imagine there was a lot of bogus, counterfeit bills for non-existent banks floating around. But, really, it didn't matter until the bill eventually found its way back to the originating bank which would dishonor it for the current bearer. But, in the meantime, it worked just fine for a means of exchange despite its bogus nature. What counterfeiting DID do was cause inflation by creating too much money chasing the goods and services in commerce, creating pressure to raise prices. That's why the Secret Service was originally created, to fight counterfeiting of bank notes, regardless of what banks printed and issued them.
But, to get back to the original point. Our Founding Fathers did not put anything on the money. That happened after 1913.
