In 19th-century America almost anyone could print their own money – and many did. One of the most notable figures to take this up was a man named James Brown, a charismatic conman who built a fortune producing fake banknotes. In this episode of The Story of Money, Stephen Mihm, a professor of history at the University of Georgia, introduces hosts Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth to “the hardest working man in counterfeiting”. They discuss the parallels between banking in the Wild West and the advent of cryptocurrencies today, and the role trust plays in all financial systems.

Further reading:

A Nation of Counterfeiters: Capitalists, Con Men, and the Making of the United States, by Stephen Mihm (2007)

The Square and Tower: Networks, Hierarchies and the Struggle for Global Power, by Niall Ferguson (2018)

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Hosts: Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth

Guest: Stephen Mihm

Producer: Lulu Smyth

Senior Producer: Michela Tindera and Laurence Knight

Executive Producers: Flo Phillips and Manuela Saragosa

Original music: Breen Turner

Broadcast engineers: Bianca Wakeman and Petros Giuompasis

Podcast Development: Laura Clarke

FT Global Head of Audio: Cheryl Brumley

Video editor: Kristen Kenyon at Podcast Discovery

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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