Like many pieces of old currency, some denominations just do not seem real. Last time in our blog series covering Whitman Publishing’s 100 Greatest American Currency Notes, we talked about a $500 Legal Tender Note from the early 1860s. By today’s standards, that is unheard of. In this most recent entry, we go to the opposite end of the denomination spectrum and revisit one of the most significant pieces of Fractional Currency from the 1860s and 1870s with help from authors Q. David Bowers and David M. Sundman.
#51 – F.E. Spinner Portrait and Signature 50¢ Fractional Currency, Third Issue
While there were many Fractional and Postage Currency notes in the 1860s and 1870s ranging from 3¢ to 50¢ denominations, the third issue of the F.E. Spinner Portrait and Signature 50¢ Fractional note is perhaps the most significant due to the portrait on the face featuring General Francis Elias Spinner, the man credited with the creation of the small pieces of paper that took the place of coinage during and after the American Civil War.
The series began in the summer of 1862 when the Union took a hit after the Battle of Bull Run, making their stance in the war against the Confederates even more questionable. Coins were being hoarded by the public and buying every day small items was becoming increasingly difficult because there were not any coins to do so. Tokens, common postage stamps, and scrip notes then entered circulation and were being used as money.
This is where General Francis E. Spinner, who was the United States Treasurer, would get the idea to take the postage stamp idea even further and pasted denomination stamps onto sheets of Treasury letterhead paper. Those denominations included 5¢, 10¢, 25¢, and 50¢. He would then cut the paper down and give them his signature. It would then continue to progress into actual printed Postage Currency, and over time fractional notes depicting the same designs as those found on postage stamps but in the form of small paper money were being made.
With the birth of the Postage Currency, it opened the doors for a new small denomination series. The Act of March 3, 1863, would see Fractional Currency. Notes from 5¢ to 50¢ began circulating in October of that year. The series would continue to develop with face and back colors varying as well as the size of the notes. Fractional currency was printed until 1876.
