One hundred and sixty-eight years ago, at a time when U.S. states still minted their own currency and the Statue of Liberty had yet to be built, a Bavarian immigrant by the name of Marcus Goldman first stepped foot on American soil. For two decades our humble hero made a living as a peddler and shopkeeper. Then, in 1869, he reinvented himself as a banker, brokering IOUs from a basement office next to a coal chute in the shadow of Wall Street. He died at age 82, father to five children and the beginnings of a financial empire. advertisement advertisement Chances are you’d be happy to borrow money to pay off your debt from a hardworking family man like Marcus, his success story writ in sepia tones. Or that at least is the theory behind Marcus by Goldman Sachs , the lending product for everyday Americans that the Wall Street firm unveiled today, more than a year after installing Discover executive Harit Talwar at the product’s helm. Marcus lives online, powered by a custom-built technology stack, but traffics in nostalgia, with old-fashioned typefaces and illustrations. Visiting the Marcus home page feels a bit like posing in the “old time” photo…