The work will begin Thursday, May 17, and should last approximately three weeks.

One half of the upper floor will be blocked from public access at a time, while the other side will stay open for use. Library staff will page materials from closed areas upon request. All other areas of the Undergraduate Library will remain open. Other UNC libraries also remain open on a summer schedule.

Please contact Suchi Mohanty in the Undergraduate Library for additional information.

Download event flier (pdf)

Saturday, June 2, 2012
Wilson Special Collections Library
9:30 a.m. Coffee and Pastries | Main Lobby
10 a.m. Program | Pleasants Family Assembly Room
Free and open to the public.
Information: Liza Terll, Friends of the Library, (919) 548-1203

Civil War currency will be the topic of a June 2 program at the Wilson Special Collections Library. Participants who bring samples of Civil War currency will also have the opportunity for experts to evaluate their items.

The free public program will begin at 10 a.m. in the Pleasants Family Assembly Room. Registration will open at 9:30 a.m.

Wendell Wolka will deliver the keynote speech, “And the World Turned Upside Down: The Effect of the Civil War on the Paper Money of the United States both North and South.” Wolka writes and teaches about numismatics. He is a governor of the American Numismatic Association and is governor and past president of the Society of Paper Money Collectors.

Other topics and speakers will be:

• Fractional paper money, issued by the federal government to ease the shortage of circulating coins (Dennis Edens, vice president of the Raleigh Coin Club);
• Printers who produced Civil War paper money, with a focus on North Carolina’s state and private issues (Jerry Roughton, co-publisher of the North Carolina Numismatic Scrapbook, and author of several books about North Carolina numismatics); and
• Counterfeiting and its effects on the war and the Southern economy (Bob Schreiner, past president of the North Carolina Numismatic Association, and author of several articles on obsolete paper money).

At 1 p.m., local experts, along with some of the speakers, will examine notes, coins, and other Civil War money items brought by attendees. The experts will evaluate currency, but not provide appraisals.

The event is sponsored by the North Carolina Collection, the Friends of the Library, the Society of Paper Money Collectors, the North Carolina Numismatic Association, and the Raleigh Coin Club.

The program continues the Wilson Special Collection Library’s series of programs related to the 150^th anniversary of the Civil War. In 2012, Wilson Library launched The Civil War Day by Day, a blog that presents one document each day related to the corresponding day of the war. An exhibition about the Civil War in memory is planned for 2015.

Related Links

• North Carolina Collection