Happy July everyone! We all work with money every day, so in honor of Independence Day here is a little quiz about United States Currency - past and present. How many can you match up without looking it up - just off the top of your head?

Whose profile is on the following currency - match one side to the other side:

One of these men, Alexander Hamilton was the founder of the United States Banking system. He was the first Secretary of the Treasury. He is the subject of a much-praised Broadway musical currently on stage. He understood the value of a banking system and credit  -  a subject near and dear to all our lives as we work in the credit profession. Mr. Hamilton said:

"The tendency of a national bank is to increase public and private credit. The former gives power to the state, for the protection of its rights and interests: and the latter facilitates and extends the operations of commerce among individuals. Industry is increased, commodities are multiplied, agriculture and manufacturers flourish: and herein consists the true wealth and prosperity of a state."

Our founding fathers valued life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They also thought about the processes our Republic would need to obtain and keep the values our county has now and currently represents. Every day we as credit professionals work in a field valued by our founding fathers - Credit. In the Revolutionary War our Colonies borrowed money (credit) from other countries and ourselves. The struggles to fund our fight for freedom from England led George Washington and Alexander Hamilton to understand that a nation should be fiscally stable and therefore they created a common market, common currency and regulated trade and commerce and established a national bank.

Banking and credit have evolved from the days of Washington and Hamilton, but the foundations are still the same. Banking and credit extend commerce. Credit in America has also changed over the few centuries since we as a Nation began but has never been more important. Credit professionals face many money/banking challenges in today's ever-changing world. We face new monetary challenges with Bitcoin. We face fraud in credit card and ACH transactions. Some of us are still exposed to counterfeit bills. We can meet those challenges and the ones we have not thought of yet with NACM and its members, groups and education programs. See you at the ICEL meeting July 12th!