[justshutupandtakeit]

Probably because the relative value would make coins of that nature impractical. Carrying around enough coins to transact business would be very difficult.

An interesting little historical sidelight came when I was reading a biography of James Polk and it quoted a letter from his wife complaining about the difficulty of carrying around gold money.

[inquest]

An interesting little historical sidelight came when I was reading a biography of James Polk and it quoted a letter from his wife complaining about the difficulty of carrying around gold money.

But that wouldn't have been such a difficulty when gold was scarce, as you say it was at the time of the first Bank of the U.S. And if efficiency of carrying was the only reason for paper money, then I would think private banks would certainly have been able to provide that.