Liberty Loan of 1917

Illustration of the Statue of Liberty on a red background wtih white text with an outer blue edge with white text

A Liberty Loan, also known as a Liberty Bond, was a war bond that was sold in the United States to support the allied cause in WWI. War bonds are debt securities issued by a government to finance military operations and other expenses in times of war. There were four issues of Liberty Bonds, and two of which were in 1917. The First Liberty Loan Act authorizes issue of $5 billion in bonds at 3.5%, but only raised $2 billion with 5.5 million people. Therefore, there was the Second Liberty Loan Act, offering $3 billion in bonds at 4%, only totaling $3.8 billion with 9.4 million people purchasing bonds. Through the selling of Liberty Bonds, the government was able to raise $21.5 billion for the war.