The front page showcases America's staggering post-Civil War wealth with a fascinating tour of the U.S. Sub-Treasury in New York, which handled $3-10 million daily and stored over $30 million in gold alone. The vault contained bags of gold worth $5,000 each, weighing 45 pounds, stacked so casually that visitors would 'kick one as you enter.' Meanwhile, corruption scandal rocks the military as Brevet Brigadier General J.C. Briscoe and Worcester sutler A.W. Lackey were arrested for attempting to steal $120,000 in greenbacks plus captured Confederate gold from the Lynchburg post quartermaster's safe. The elaborate scheme involved making duplicate keys from wax impressions and planning to burn the building to cover their tracks. The page also features a scathing piece on British financial support for the Confederacy, naming specific Parliament members who invested in rebel bonds, including Chancellor of the Exchequer William Gladstone himself, who put $455,000 into the Confederate cause.

This October 1865 edition captures America six months after Appomattox, still grappling with war's aftermath while displaying unprecedented national wealth. The Sub-Treasury piece reveals how the Civil War transformed American finance—what was once a sleepy two-room operation now controlled the nation's banking system. The corruption case shows how quickly some sought to profit from war's end, while the British investment story reflects lingering international tensions and America's growing confidence in calling out European powers who had supported the rebellion.

• Custom duties arrived daily via a little red hand-cart that 'sometimes contains $750,000' pushed by two men up Wall Street, with two armed guards casually following on the sidewalk
• Cashier E.H. Birdsale could detect counterfeit gold coins 'at the first dip of his hands' into a $5,000 bag, even spotting pieces that had been split open, filed out, filled with iridium, and resoldered
• One of New York's richest men kept 'his daughters, married and single, busy cutting off coupons for a whole afternoon and evening' before interest day, with the eldest daughter sweeping the room afterward to catch any dropped valuable scraps
• The newspaper itself cost $3 per year if paid in advance, otherwise 75 cents per month—showing even newspapers operated on credit systems
• Seven-Thirty bond coupons were so small you could 'easily put $50,000 in your waistcoat pocket,' while Ten-Forty coupons were described as 'no bigger than apothecary's labels'

• That $30 million in gold sitting in the Sub-Treasury vault was waiting for 'the resurrection of specie payments'—America wouldn't return to the gold standard until 1879, making this a 14-year hibernation
• Chancellor Gladstone, who invested heavily in Confederate bonds, would later become one of Britain's most celebrated Prime Ministers, serving four separate terms—but this investment was a total loss
• The 'little red ark' carrying up to $750,000 in gold daily up Wall Street was worth about $15 million in today's money, making it one of history's most valuable wheelbarrow runs
• General Briscoe's scheme targeted money in a safe that 'formerly belonged to a rebel officer'—the irony being that Union officers were now trying to rob their own government using Confederate equipment
• The Erie Railroad investment mentioned would help create the first truly transcontinental rail network, but the company would become synonymous with the Gilded Age's most notorious financial manipulations by Jay Gould and James Fisk