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The charters establishing the First and Second Banks of the United States both included a clever clause that limited the ability of those proto-central banks to print money: Every bill issued had to be hand-signed by either the president or cashier of the bank. 

This wasn’t an attempt to impose restrictive monetary policy, however — it was more about a Jeffersonian fear of big banks and institutions too far removed from local control.

But the effect was the same: Both the First and Second banks issued less money than their presidents wanted them to, simply because they couldn’t sign…

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