George Smith's money. The name applied to a circulating medium (in this case a substitute for
money) devised by George Smith, who came to the United States from Scotland in 1834 and who
died in London in 1899 in his ninety-second year, leaving a fortune estimated at £10,000,000
(about $50,000,000).  In 1839 Smith procured the incorporation of the Wisconsin Marine and Fire
Insurance Company and made himself its president. The company did not and it was not Smith's
intention that it should do much of an insurance business. It proceeded to issue what were termed
certificates of deposit in denominations of $i and upward in similitude of bank bills.  These
certificates said on their face that the amount of them had been deposited with the company and
that they were payable to the bearer on demand.  The whole Northwest had been denuded of
currency by the financial disturbance of 1837 and there was ready employment for George Smith's
money, which, by reason of the fact that it was promptly redeemed on presentation, passed
everywhere without discount, or in other words, at its full face value. It was wildcat or red dog
money, but it was good.