Muscogee County GaArchives Photo Person.....Jordan, C.Dexter 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Christine Thacker http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00033.html#0008100 April 25, 2007, 11:03 am

Source:             Special Sesquicentennial Supplement II Ledger-Enquirer
Name:               C.Dexter Jordan
Photo can be seen at:
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/muscogee/photos/jordan12666gph.jpg
Image file size: 168.8 Kb

                   Jordan Coin Collection Started 70 Years Ago

                         By Robin Fornoff  
                        Ledger Staff Writer

  Dexter Jordan's addiction started with a birthday present from his 
grandfather 70 years ago - a coin collecting portfolio.
  "I'll never forget it," the 79-.year-old Columbus native remembers. "It set 
me on fire.
  "I swore right then  I'd collect them all. And I did." 
  The flames Jordan's grandfather ignited soon began to spread. Books, stamps. 
arrowheads, semiprecious stones and anything else Jordan could get his hands on 
soon began cluttering his home. And with each Item Jordan saved he began 
collecting bits of history.
  Seventy years later, Jordan's most prized possession is a rare collection of 
paper money dating to the American Revolution. "I like the bills better." he 
says. "There's so much history in them."
  The history contained within Jordan's collection tells a story not only of 
this country but the development of Columbus as well. Stories such as why the 
city issued paper money of its own in 1836 for 6 1/4 and 12 1/12 cents.
  "The City of Girard (now Phenix City) was in bad need of some money then," 
Jordan explained.. "Since they didn't want to tax any  of their own people, 
they set up a toll tax for anyone coming over from Georgia to Alabama on the 
Dillingham Street bridge." That tax was 6 1/12 cents for every person, and 25 
cents for a person, horse and wagon.
  "That really shook some people up in Columbus, " Jordan said, pointing to 
newspaper accounts he'd discovered while investigating the history of the paper 
money. Those accounts called the move "outrageous" and demanded immediate 
action by city council.
  "Well, they hemmed and hawed with it for a while," Jordan said, "then 
somebody got smart and the city council decided to set up its own tax for 
anyone crossing the bridge from Russell County to Columbus. That stopped it 
right quick."
  Jordan began collecting the paper money for at least two reasons. "They tell 
a history. . . a history of banks in Columbus and the way the city developed," 
he said.
  "The bills are beautiful. American coins are the ugliest, the plainest coins 
in the world," Jordan said.
"But look at that bill. Look at the artistry, the fine detail in it. Can't get 
that on any coin.
  Among the bills in Jordan's collection is one with a likeness of his great- 
great-grandfather, Samuel Dexter, who served as both secretary of the treasury 
and secretary of state under the John Quincy Adams administration. One of 
Jordan's favorite bills is an ornate depiction of Indian Chief One Papa from 
the 1800s. There's a bill from 1776 decrying oppression by the British king and 
a gold note from 1786.
  There's also a counterfeit Confederate bill, one that's "nothing but throwing 
good paper after bad," Jordan observes with a chuckle.
  Jordan began collecting the bills as part of a plan to someday write a 
history of Columbus banks. His collection  of factional money, bills of 
denominations of less than $1, reveals and elaborate history of such 
institutions
  Money issued by banks and merchants was not only the rule during the 1800s, 
but a necessity. Coins were minted of only precious metals such as gold and 
silver and people hoarded them, leaving the supply continuously snort and 
merchants unable to make change.
  The names of those printing the bills reveal the customers they sought and 
the makeup of the city. Names like Planters,  Merchants and Mechanics,  Pigeon 
Roost Mining Co., Phenix-Eagle Mills and  Chattahoochee Railroad Bank fill the 
pages of Jordan's collection.
  "There's so much history just in one of these bills," Jordan says. "Look 
here, here's one from the Bank of St. Mary's signed by Gen. Paul Sims. He was 
killed at Gettysburg. Merchants and Mechanics was started by W.L. Salisbury. 
He's the one Salisbury Park is named for.
  I  never was interested in history in school," he says. "I thought it was a 
sissy subject. But I like it now.”
  As much time and investigation as Jordan put into the collection, he's still 
not sure whether the history of Columbus banking will ever get written.
  "I don't know whether I'll ever do it or not," he confessed. "I want to but I 
keep getting new material and I don't know enough about banking it seems. You 
see, when you write about banking  you write about the very history of a 
community. And I don't know enough . . . yet."


Special Sesquicentennial Supplement II
Ledger~Enquirer, Sunday, April 23, 1978, S-28


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/muscogee/photos/jordan12666gph.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/

File size: 5.3 Kb