5¢ bill

[whitetail]

In Civil War times, most citizens of the Union states were forced to make ends meet on less than a dollar a day. Compounding the misfortune, the strife of war made small coinage so scarce that millions had to resort to using postage stamps to pay for everyday transactions. This unduly strained local post office revenues and the national economy in

Comments

Super cool!

[yotie]

I love that sorta thing!

[polaris93]

That's fascinating! One more thing about American history I never knew before. At its best, the Internet is a powerful learning tool -- not just resources like Wikipedia, but also blog entries and similar things. Wonderful entry.

[whitetail]

Glad you liked it! I just added a pic that shows the bill's actual size. These fractional currency notes were only a little larger than the postage stamps they were intended to replace.

[polaris93]

It must have been a pain trying to keep track of the stamps vs. the bills. I wonder if dealing with that currency could be used to good effect in a Civil War novel.