Know Your Money, 1861

[Pvt Schnapps]

For those who want some "portable first person" applicable to a variety of events, I have attached a little treatise on the soldier and his money in 1861. It mentions farm laborer pay in Indiana but would generally apply to northern soldiers from many other states, too.

This is actually a variation on the "First Person Finances" article I did for the last "Winter '64" event, and is a wee bit shorter because it's a little early to talk about raging inflation.

As an additional treat, I have attached a copy of General Order No. 95 of November 6, 1861, which provides a comprehensive list of prices for clothing, camp and garrison equipage for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1861.

Note, among the little curiosities of army life, that while your hat or cap is clothing, any brass attached is company property. Also note that the government has only recently decided to make gum blankets and ponchos a regular item of supply, so they do not appear on the price list and if you have one of those, or a painted blanket, it likely came from private or state sources.

Enjoy!

[KathyBradford]

Re: Know Your Money, 1861

Fascinating and well-written. Thank you.

[James]

Re: Know Your Money, 1861

Thank you for posting this. I found it well written and an enjoyable read.

James Mayard

[S.D.Foster]

Re: Know Your Money, 1861

Excellent article, thank you for sharing it.
I have been trying to determine if soldiers would commonly carry even the large cents which ceased to be made in 1857. With the shortage of hard currency, I tend to think they would carry these, even though they are not a convenient size.

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: Know Your Money, 1861

I don't know if you're asking me, but I'll take a stab at it anyway :)

Whatever we learn about the contents of an individual soldier's pockets will probably count as no more than anecdotal evidence of anything, so I would hesitate to lay out any rules. The answer always seems to come out as "it depends," with our research taking us into "depends on what?"

Given that, here are some things to consider:

Time of war. Once the U.S. goes to legal tender money, coins start disappearing. The government responds in part with more paper, and in part with cheaper bronze pennies, but everyone still writes about shortages of change. This will get more complicated in the south. For example, it takes awhile for the Confederate dollar to become worthless, but it starts shedding value early.

According to the little I know (see: http://www.collectorsalliance.com/Fi...CJV20-2web.pdf) the government stops making the big copper penny because the value of the metal begins to exceed the face value of the coin, and in fact it becomes the inspiration for the beginning of coin collecting. Both these factors argue against finding it in circulation.

This site further argues that the coin seldom saw use outside the northeast -- perhaps as far west as Illinois and as far south as Virginia. It also states that the government encouraged people to redeem them and that they became "curiosities." http://www.reedededge.com/coinlibraryitem.php?artid=2

The age of the coin isn't a factor: many of the Spanish coins in circulation before the war are a lot older.

Still, all kinds of coins do pop up from time to time. For one thing, specie is still used to pay customs duties, so businesses have a need for them. One of the pieces of testimony in the Lincoln conspiracy trial describes an exchange of gold coins for greenbacks at a ratio of about 60 cents in gold to paper. People are used to bargaining in the marketplace and deciding what value to place on a variety of coins and, later, shinplasters.

So where does that leave your penny?

You could have it on you at any point in the war as a good luck piece.

You could also have it as a sort of reserve currency. Even the face value would equate to maybe a half dollar or dollar today. Given that it's real copper, and of greater weight than any other penny out there, you could, under the right circumstances, negotiate a much higher value for it, especially in the south, and the value would rise on either side of the border over the course of the war.

It's like having a couple dollars on you for emergencies and, unlike paper money, it's not going to fall apart from sweat and wear.

But I don't think you can say they were common. This would limit their value in living histories and I wouldn't suggest you take something like that into the field at a more demanding event -- I think it's more important you take care of it.

[S.D.Foster]

Re: Know Your Money, 1861

Many thanks for the excellent response! I appreciate the insight into the copper cents, even if we are still left guessing if soldiers actually carried them. I could further speculate that it may be more common among soldiers from the northeast, or those who went through larger cities for a time.

I had been told, years ago, that soldiers often punched holes in coins, and might sew them into the inside of, for example, a coat. The motive being that if they were killed, someone might be able to have money for postage to send a letter (3 cents) to the folks back home. Granted, I cannot recall the source and looking at it now, it sounds almost anecdotal. I have seen more than a few coins with holes, and even put one inside my sack coat (a well worn one with no clear date, although it conformed to the pattern that existed in the 1840-1860 era).

Sorry if I took this discussion off-course, but thanks again for the insight. I had also forgotten about the Spanish Reales being hard currency for so long. I thought they ceased to be officially recognized as legal tender in the 1850's, but with the currency shortage it makes sense that some would again emerge. Fascinating!

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: Know Your Money, 1861

It's an interesting story but they may have had some other reason for the practice.

According to the National Almanac and Annual Review for 1863, by an act passed on July 22, 1861, all soldiers (and on January 21, 1862, all sailors and marines) could mail letters without prepayment if marked "Soldier's Letter" (or "Sailor's" or "Marine's") and franked by their company commander.

The folks at home still had to cough up 3 cents at the post office, but it saved the serviceman some trouble. If he wanted to send a letter to his sweetheart, he probably wouldn't do that, so postage stamps remained pretty popular with soldiers at the front.

The army would in any case try to get in contact with the next of kin in order to settle the soldier's accounts, including the balance of their enlistment bounty and any back pay and personal effects. If you get a chance to look at Kautz's Company Clerk, I think he covers it under Inventory of Effects and Final Statement.

So you might want to scratch or engrave your name on the coin sewed to your coat so they could use some of your pay to give you a proper burial, but you wouldn't need it for postage. ;)