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A Buffalo Dollar coin.
The United States of America has always minted currency, except for the period immediately following Doomsday. Today, the basic currency of the United States is the Buffalo Dollar.
Pre-Doomsday[]
Alexander Hamilton
The immediate aftermath of the American Revolution saw the fledgling United States facing extreme debt and associated financial problems, leading to international tensions and domestic disturbances such as Shays' Rebellion. It was ultimately the monetary policy of Alexander Hamilton, the nation's first Secretary of the Treasury, that stabilized the nation's currency and economic system.
As the United States grew in power and prosperity to become the world's preeminent superpower, the dollar's international importance grew accordingly. The Bretton Woods Agreement of 1944 established the US Dollar as the Earth's primary reserve currency. The US dollar remained king in the world economy until Doomsday.
Post-Doomsday: Collapse of the Dollar[]
Continental United States[]
The immediate effect of Doomsday on the US economy was instant and total collapse. The first few months after that fateful night saw the pockets of survivors across the nation initially hiding from radioactive fallout, then from raiders and scavengers. Almost nobody traveled very far from their shelters without an official purpose, and economies shrank at lightspeed to become extremely localized.
As trade slowly began to reemerge in fits and starts in the mid-1980's, the use of official currency was negligible, as the vast majority of transactions involved the trade of objects, food, or services. As this new barter economy emerged, it became (and would remain) the primary means of economic interaction in the USA and Canada for several years.
Meanwhile in distant Australia, President George H.W. Bush's American Provisional Administration made token attempts to maintain the US dollar, but the APA's reach was virtually nonexistent on the North American mainland.
American Provisional Administration[]
At Canberra, President Bush was faced with the total collapse of the US economy and the need to revive it within the Pacific islands still under the umbrella of the American Provisional Administration. He spent much time conferring heavily with Donald Regan, who had been President Ronald Reagan's Secretary of the Treasury and (having rode with Bush on Air Force Two during the evacuation from North America) was now continuing in that role for the APA.
In an early speech, after consulting with his advisors, Bush endorsed the continued use of the US dollar in the US Pacific territories and among the American expats in Australia, in addition to the use of the Australian Dollar.
A 1983 Australian Dollar featuring Queen Elizabeth II. The notes featuring Her Majesty became the de facto US currency in the Pacific Rim as the Australian Dollar became predominant in the APA, these banknotes featuring the Queen began appearing and being used in US Pacific territories as far away as Alaska and Hawaii, as .
Almost inevitably, the Australian Dollar became the default currency used in the majority of transactions. The US dollar remained in circulation in Hawaii, American Samoa, and other APA-governed territories, but confidence in the currency was low in the 1980's. This process of the Australian Dollar becoming preeminent in the APA, dubbed "Aussie-fication," was vastly accelerated (ironically) by the APA's acceptance of vast loans of currency from Australia to help it stabilize its territories. As Australian dollars flooded into circulation as far away as Hawaii and Alaska (and even a tiny area of California during the APA's brief fortification at Crescent City), the Aussie currency became the de facto currency of the APA, even as it still insisted that the US Dollar was still (in theory) usable currency.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation sent reporters to Alaska during the early days of its association with the ANZC, and several Alaskan residents noted bemusedly about their surprise the first time they had found themselves encountering dollar bills with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth's portrait being used on American soil.
United States Atlantic Remnant[]
During the late 1980's and 1990's, the United States Atlantic Remnant, by necessity, entered into a policy of currency substitution, endorsing the East Caribbean Federation Dollar as legal tender within the American Caribbean islands.
Although the USAR had ambitions of one day either producing a renewed US dollar on its own or doing so in conjunction with other parts of America, Governor De Jongh saw the practicality of using the already ubiquitous ECF Dollar in everyday transactions for the time being, although he declared that any pre-Doomsday currency from the US that was still in circulation would be considered to still be acceptable legal tender "in perpetuity until a new American currency can be minted." In practice though, the ECF Dollar was the predominant currency going forward.
Another issue as time wore on was the importance of providing a governmental backer for the remaining US currency circulating the Caribbean. It was one thing for the USAR government to declare the US Dollar to still be acceptable legal tender, but--in the absence of a governmental body actually supervising monetary policy and the USAR financial system, or providing financial services to the USAR's state apparatus--the public in the USAR and around the Caribbean had sagging faith in the USD, while the ECF Dollar proliferated. The USAR authorities saw value in maintaining reserves and acceptance of both both the ECF Dollar and surviving US currency for two principal reasons: 1. To maintain the public's confidence that the USAR could continue to maintain and uphold the concept of American identity until a reunion of American states could be achieved, 2. To allow the USAR to retain a degree of control over its monetary system; it was feared that if the American islands surrendered completely to the undivided use of the ECF Dollar, the ECF would have an increasing amount of control over the USAR, a situation its leaders would not allow to happen.
Thus, in the absence of a central bank on the fallen mainland, the USAR legislature voted to create a Bank of the United States Atlantic Remnant. The BUSAR (as it soon became known) functioned as a miniature successor the old Federal Reserve system. In contrast to the Fed, however, it was more of a local entity by default (due to the USAR's geographic situation), and did not command nearly as much confidence as the Federal Reserve system had, since the Fed had had the backing of the pre-Doomsday world's preeminent superpower, and the BUSAR had the backing of the fledgling government of a much more modestly-sized series of islands. Nevertheless, as the USAR gradually emerged as one of the more successful survivor states in the post-Doomsday Western Hemisphere, the American islands gradually earned the faith of the public and of the reemerging international investors.
Albert Bryan Jr., a native of St. Thomas, who earned degrees in economics and business administration, and rose to become Chairman of the Bank of the United States Atlantic Remnant.
The BUSAR was initially helmed by a US Navy Admiral who had previously earned a degree in macroeconomics during his education. The BUSAR received its first civilian Chairman in the 2010's when the Governor appointed Albert Bryan Jr., a native of St. Thomas, as BUSAR Chairman.
Rebirth of the US Dollar[]
Even before the Provisional United States based out of Torrington would declare itself the officially renewed USA, economic necessities would demand that it make moves to reestablish the US dollar.
As the Provisional United States began to grow, economic advisors urged its leadership to facilitate movement away from the post-Doomsday barter system and back towards an economy of liquid currency as soon as possible in order to facilitate confidence in the Provisional government and provide much-needed economic stability.
To do this, a new Mint would need to be established. A site was chosen in Fort Collins, Colorado. The state of Colorado had rejoined the Union in 1993, and its location in the heart of the Rocky Mountains made it an ideal site for the collection of metals and minting of new coinage. One of the pre-Doomsday US Mint sites had been located in Denver, after all. President Ray Hunkins proposed the Provisional US Mint Enabling Act, which was quickly approved by Congress. The new Provisional US Mint in Fort Collins was soon established, and became a major source of jobs in the city.
As the Provisional Mint came online, the new currency it began producing became informally known as "the New Dollar."
New Dollarization and the Buffalo Dollar[]
A late 1990's map featuring the early NAU (shaded in blue). Its borders have grown extensively since then.
The Provisional US soon spearheaded the creation of the North American Union, an economic and political alliance of American and Canadian survivor states in the region. Upon the NAU's formation in 1997, the PUSA was a key member and driving force. The PUSA's role in spearheading the NAU's formation and its size as the largest member meant that the nation's newly-minted currency (at that point referred to as "the New Dollar") would soon be predominant. Before Doomsday, there had been a widespread, specific form of currency substitution called Dollarization, in which certain countries or dependencies would adopt the US Dollar as the accepted currency of their own territories, due to the weakness of their own currencies and the strength of the US Dollar. Now, with the rise of a new US dollar backed by the "full faith and credit" of the Provisional US government, confidence was growing in the New Dollar's likely stability. This currency would itself be phased out in 1997, when the North American Union (at this point only the Provisional United States and Canadian governments) would mint its own multinational currency - the Buffalo Dollar.
The reverse side of a Buffalo Dollar paper note. As the currency of all US Mint design features the NAU emblem on this side of the greenback.
A New Central Bank, and controversy[]
By 2002, US officials in Torrington were growing convinced of the need to reintroduce a central bank to replace the old Federal Reserve System for the sake of stabilizing US currency and overseeing monetary policy. There would, however, be challenges to this endeavor.
The western states that now made up the entirety of the 2002-era USA had traditionally been more prone to populist suspicion of central banks. The government's new proposal to restore the Federal Reserve would be met with distrust for this reason. The western prairie states' residents were largely Jeffersonian in instinct, while the (re)creation of a central bank for the government was by nature a decidedly Hamiltonian project. Thus, a traditional faultline in US politics--that had existed since the very beginning of the nation's history--once more reared its head for the first time since Doomsday.
When the bill for the creation of the new central bank was proposed, Senators held town halls in their home states on the idea. It was a subject of intense debate, and many Senators faced unruly and aggressive receptions at various town hall meetings.
Despite this, enough people were convinced of the practicality of the proposal, and the Federal Reserve Restoration Act was passed by a modest majority in Congress in November of 2002.
The New Federal Reserve, or the "New Fed" as it became known, has often been the target of conspiracy theories by fringier activist groups, but the majority of economists feel that it has brought restored stability to the Buffalo Dollar and US money supply.
Torrington-Atlantic Remnant Monetary Policy[]
HQ of the Bank of the United States Atlantic Remnant is on the left, housed in the former Bank of Saint Thomas building.
The Bank of the United States Atlantic Remnant faced some of its more interesting decisions in the early 21st century. During the 2000's, the Governor had appointed the BUSAR's first civilian Chairman, Albert Bryan Jr. Chairman Bryan's long tenure in this office continued to oversee the monetary policy of the USAR.
Following the USAR's vote to restore ties with the American mainland through association with the Torrington-based US government (and with it, integrating the USAR into the North American Union), BUSAR now found itself involved in negotiations and planning over the question of currency. The moment that the USAR's leadership had hoped for for decades had finally arrived: a reunion with the mainland.
Of course, as a practical matter, the ECF Dollar would remain predominant for several more years. However, Charlotte Amalie and Torrington agreed to open currency circulation between the mainland and the American islands. The Governor of the USAR, in conjunction with Chairman Bryan of BUSAR, released a joint statement (following a vote among the legislature) that the NAU's Buffalo Dollar currency from the new mainland government would be officially acknowledged as legal tender in the islands, though the CF Dollar would also continue to be legal tender as well.
The mainland USA began helping the USAR both in terms of shipments of mainland-built machinery to repair and upgrade the USAR's aging vessels and infrastructure, and also financially with block grants, thus releasing Buffalo Dollars into circulation, with the mainland currency being an increasingly common site in the American Virgin Islands, its fledgeling Key West outpost and beyond.
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