Early Coins In Western States

Before railroads the major sources of transportation were the rivers. Commerce was by flatboat and then later by steamboat. Before the steamboat goods tended to travel downriver and payments for goods would travel either on downriver to the seaports and then back easy by sailboat, or sometimes overland back upriver. As they got further east they would start traveling by canal boat. The closer the the city was to a river choke point the larger the city would be. But these western cities you mentioned were also much smaller at the time and did not grow to tremendously until the railroads solved the logistics problems. These cities before he the advent of the railroads were still pretty much part of the western frontier and as such used what ever they could as a medium of exchange. A lot of it was probably Spanish or Spanish colonies. (The major reason the Mint was located in New Orleans was because of the tremendous amounts of Spanish silver that flowed into the city and then on upriver.