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Curious Note is Desirable Collectible
 | By Fred Reed, Coins Magazine
April 06, 2009 |
Small-denomination notes of the Civil War that were once wartime waifs are now princely paper and highly desired collectibles.
These notes resulted from a specie shortage, as wartime hoarding soaked up the available supply of gold and silver coins in the first year of the war.
Gold coins commanded a premium over their face value: 3 percent in January 1862. Brokers quoted the premium at 4-3/4 percent in early February. By June this premium had doubled. It reached 15 percent by July, when the government authorized postage stamps for use as currency.
By the fall gold was at plus-32 percent. Even silver coins were valued at plus-12 percent in July, and more than 20 percent over face value by the fall.
In the Midwest, transit tickets of the Chicago City Railway Co. formed a makeshift circulation. Convenience and the reputation of the company floated this brand of scrip. For good measure, the company dealt heavily in postage stamps, which it illegally sold at a premium to those wary of its own fare coupons.
A contemporary observer reported that the small change panic "apparently absorbs the entire attention of the people to the exclusion of the war, the condition of the army, the new call for troops, the doings of Congress, or even the policy to be pursued with regard to the Negro."
In the North, a flood of so-called shinplasters erupted. In the South, where even paper to print cheap notes was problematical, some of the City of Richmond shinplasters were printed on the backs of leftover, unissued bank notes.
Boston lithographer Louis Prang advertised he could supply "Small Currency manufactured at short notice, in most elegant style at moderate prices." A New York City competitor circulated a small change sample advertising note which reads "Small Currency - Hatch & Co. New York Lithographers 29 William St. are prepared to execute all orders for small paper currency, corporation orders &c. in the best style of lithography."
New York printer Ferd. Mayer advertised in the city's newspapers: "Small Currency Bills. Corporations and merchants wishing to issue small currency bills will be furnished with samples and estimates on addressing the subscribers." The printer issued an illustrious advertising note for this trade on the "Shinplaster Bank."
Its legend reads: "The subscribers promise to furnish on demand from Ten to a Thousand Dollars worth of Shinplasters executed in the best style & at the lowest rate at Fulton St. New York."
Presses in hundreds of different print shops unleashed scrip of uncertain value on the public.
A Brooklyn lady purchased an article in Fulton Street in late summer 1862, and received the following as change for a one dollar bill: ferry tickets, shinplaster, counterfeit penny (probably a Civil War token), car ticket, milk ticket, butcher's I.O.U., grocer's I.O.U., bread ticket, three cent postage stamps, one-cent postage stamp and an ice cream ticket, according to the Chicago Evening Journal.
One issuer justified his notes with Franklin's "Necessity is the Mother of Invention" aphorism. Another claimed "Military Necessity." Many were worthless and fell to a loss to their final holders.
"Every individual who saw his way to unloading his promissory notes on the community did so," a contemporary observed.
J.W. and J. McCarty emphasized the thrift of their "Cheap Ready Pay Store" with a likeness of thrifty Benjamin Franklin. New York City's steak and potatoes maven "Old Charlie" Charles Constant Delmonico emblazoned his downtown restaurant, "The Citadel" on South William Street, on his curious 15-cent notes.
Boston looking glass and picture frame manufacturer Charles P. Poinier employed a militant eagle on his five-centers to stress his patriotic fervor.
The most curious note in my experience was purportedly issued by the Bourbon County Bank (illustrated) payable for five cents "in a day or two, or perhaps sooner&to any individual "that can find G.L. Cornell in bed at 10 A.M."
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