HARD TIMES TOKENS AND SCRIP

If you were in Baltimore, circa 1837, you might have bought your bread with a tiny political cartoon. Small change was hard to come by. In its absence, penny-like coins known as "hard times tokens" circulated widely, a form of unofficial currency.

Hard times tokens seem like normal pennies—until you take a closer look. To avoid charges of counterfeiting, the text on the tokens frequently proclaimed that they were "Not One Cent/But Just As Good." In the place of the familiar Lincoln's head, you might notice a ship being wrecked against the rocks, a leaping jackass, or Andrew Jackson popping out of a treasure-chest like a Jack-in-the-Box, encircled by the phrase "I take the responsibility." These images are succinct expressions of the anger and disappointment felt in the wake of the Panic of 1837 and the economic depression that followed it.

Alongside the hard times tokens, a variety of unofficial paper money known as "shinplasters" circulated. The name came from the thin and weak material they were made of, which resembled bandages. Local stores issued their own cheaply-printed shinplasters, and they travelled swiftly through local economies, wherever people would accept them. One contemporary observer recalled seeing a man on the street who carried a whole roll of shinplaster bills tucked into his silk top hat. Whenever he needed to buy something, he would clip off a fresh bill with a pair of scissors.

These alternative currencies raised curious legal questions. In one court case, a man who had stolen a wallet was found not guilty, since the shinplaster notes inside were not technically money. Yet bills from authentic banks could be just as dubious. People were on high alert for money issued by "wild-cat banks"—so called because, supposedly, they were hidden away in remote forests and swamps where only wild cats lived.

To read the complete article, see:
"Hard Times Tokens" Were Not One Cent (https://daily.jstor.org/hard-times-tokens-were-not-one-cent/)

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