wildcat money

wildcat moneynoun

• 1

  historicalbankingbusinessfinanceA paper currency that was issued by banks in the 19th century when there was no federal regulation of banks.

  • Heretofore, the end that should have been sought—a faultless medium of exchange—had been lost sight of; and every writer who has presented a new theory of money, not to mention the old one, has become entangled with the dogmas, State supervision, "measure of value," "standard of value," and legal tender; or lost his bearings and shipwrecked among the breakers—fiat money, wildcat money, monometallism, bimetallism, and the like.
  • Many of our "sound money" men, after the death of "free silver," follow after "assets banking," and try to delude themselves that they are not really harking back to the cult of that old money demon whose handiwork is "wildcat money," like that which some of our fathers still living knew and remember to their sorrow .