‘SHINPLASTER’ CURRENCY IN THE EARLY AMERICAN REPUBLIC
Right now the US is experiencing a coin shortage due to the myriad effects of the pandemic. It’s nothing new, writes Richard Kelleher of the Fitzwilliam Museum, as he takes us back to the first 200 years of the American colonies when there was a more urgent need for cash
In the thirteen American colonies the ‘money’ used in transactions was a mix of foreign coins (mostly Spanish eight reales, or pieces of eight), paper bills of credit, strings of native American wampum, and even commodities such as tobacco or rice. Little coin was sent from England, and the lack of any great sources of silver in North America meant that minting coins, in numbers that would make a difference, was not a viable option. When hard cash was scarce, paper often filled in the gaps. The American Revolution was largely financed by paper bills, as was the American Civil War. While war conditions forced governments to issue paper, shortage and necessity in peacetime could also do the same.
The lack of low-value coins for everyday use is a problem seen from ancient until modern times. The current Covid19 pandemic has caused a shortage of coins in the US. Analysis by the Federal Reserve gives three main reasons for the shortage. The first is that banks and businesses, including coin-heavy sectors like convenience stores, public transit and laundromats closed their doors during the lockdown phases of the pandemic. Second, the U.S. Mint also slowed its production of new coins during the early stages of the pandemic as staff was reduced for safety reasons at the mint’s Philadelphia and Denver locations. Third, as the economy reopens, consumers are opting for contactless payment and generally using less cash and coins, meaning more coins are sitting at home in Mason jars, piggy banks and under couch cushions.
The Shinplaster
In the 1850s American currency was a chaotic system composed of many thousands of different sorts of paper money. To compound the problem it is estimated that almost half of the circulating paper was counterfeit and it was wise for merchants and others who passed paper notes to subscribe to regular volumes that listed banknotes, described their appearance, and gave an assessment of their reliability. Another group of paper scrip, known colloquially as ‘shinplasters’ (or bastard paper currency, private money, and unaccounted currency) was also produced in huge numbers. The term shinplaster goes back to Revolutionary War where square continental currency notes, which would purchase very little, found a more useful role as bandages. These notes were typically issued in small
denominations as replacements for the scarce coinage. Banks, towns, merchants, and others issued them, with most issues of the southern states dating to the early years of the Civil War. The historian Michael O’Malley suggests that these pieces of money were specifically attacked by elites as they operated outside of hierarchies, ‘Their critics invariably referred to shinplasters as dirty, greasy, rank, disease-bearing, filthy, and trash.’ The negative connotations associated with them, were applied also to those who were obliged to use them – the poorest in society.
Frank Leslie’s Publishing House
The note illustrated in Figure 1 is a shinplaster from the Fitzwilliam Museum collection. It measures little more than 7cm by 4.5cm and, in design, imitates contemporary fractional currency issued after 1863 with its central image of George Washington (Figure 2). The note instructs the ‘cashier of Frank Leslie’s Publishing House’ to pay the bearer three cents and is stamped and signed like a banknote would be. Frank Leslie (real name henry Carter) was the son of an English glove maker, and talented illustrator, who emigrated to New York in 1848. He established Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper in 1855 and after a difficult start found great success illustrating the events of the
Civil War to an eager public. The often vivid illustrations were unlike any other American daily paper and made Leslie a pioneer in the print world.