The Bank of North America was chartered by the Congress of the Confederation on May 26, 1781, as the first commercial bank in the United States. To get the struggling bank off the ground and save the revolutionary government from total bankruptcy, Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris had to use a secret loan of 450,000 dollars in silver coin shipped directly from the King of France. This foreign treasure was deposited into the Philadelphia vaults to give the new American currency immediate value, allowing the bank to open its doors on January 7, 1782.
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