The 18th Amendment

Click image to enlarge.

These Prohibition Era alcohol prescriptions blend the quinessential style of American currency with a slightly subversive streak. During Prohibition, more than a million gallons of whiskey were consumed each year thanks to freely written prescriptions from medical doctors. The labels clearly stated that the alcohol was strictly for medicinal purposes only and any other uses were illegal, though no legal attempt was made to halt the practice. Doctors were loose with the prescriptions, pharmacists filled the orders without question and, not surprisingly, as Prohibition marched on, so did the number of "patients."

Some fun Prohibition facts:

• President Warren G. Harding kept the White House well stocked with bootleg liquor, though, as a Senator, he had voted for Prohibition.
• While alcohol was illegal on land, the law only extended to a three-mile limit on water, a technicality that was frequently exploited, even by state shipping lines. 
• The term The Real McCoy originated during Prohibition, thanks to Captain William S. McCoy, the leading rum-runner of the era. He refused to water down the rum he smuggled from the Caribbean to Florida; his imports were the real thing.
• The term Mountain Dew also has its origins in Prohibition. It was a term for Appalachian moonshine.