Imagine paying for groceries with nothing but a handshake. That’s how daily life went down in early America. Cows, furs, and a day’s labor were all fair game. Trust and barter were the only currency. Strange? Sure. Worked like a charm? Even better. Join us as we explore 11 bizarre payment methods our pioneers used before plastic money became available.
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Company scrip
A miner’s wages in the early 1900s might not be paid in cash. Many workers were paid in “scrip,” paper or metal tokens issued by the employer. The problem was that scrip could be spent only at the company store, where workers could buy staples at inflated prices. Stonega-owned towns in West Virginia, or CF&I-owned towns in Colorado, or logging camps in the Northwest were built on this principle. This system controlled workers entirely until it had enough continuity to generate resentful music such as “Sixteen Tons.”
Store credit ledgers
Before banks formalized credit, the local general store did it. A man could walk out the door with food, or a tool, on nothing more than his word. The debt would be entered directly into the shop’s ledger. Crops might be sold, or wages received, months later, and the ledger balanced. In towns from Virginia to Maine to Kentucky, these account books became community histories, chronicling purchases by the same families over generations.
Grain receipts
Back in the 19th-century Midwest, a farmer’s harvest could weigh a ton. Moving that much grain was a big deal, so grain elevators started issuing receipts for wheat, corn, or oats placed in their bins. Farmers could turn these notes into merchants and banks, particularly in a grain center like Chicago or Minneapolis.
Beaver pelts and other furs
In the wilderness, pelts were as good as gold. The finest beaver skin could purchase flour, clothes or useful tools when there was no coin in sight. Trappers from the North West Company and Hudson’s Bay Company brought their harvests straight to trading posts. Other furs such as fox, mink and raccoon also found ready markets abroad.
Labor exchange
Labor was turned into a form of currency in many communities. A farmer might bring a pile of firewood to pay the doctor. A teenager might mow lawns or repair fences for a bag of flour or sugar. It all counted as hard currency. In some towns, people kept track of hours worked. They had de facto labor banks and the world kept spinning.
Shell money (wampum)
Wampum beads were more than decoration, they were used as currency by many Native American tribes. They were time-consuming to make and the shells had to be carefully crafted. The early European settlers used wampum as a means of trade and Massachusetts made it official legal tender in the 1600s. Later the beads still had symbolic value, representing promises or agreements between people.
Tobacco notes
In Virginia and the surrounding colonies, farmers would store their tobacco in warehouses, and receive “tobacco notes” promising them a certain amount of tobacco. Those tobacco notes could be used to purchase goods or services, to pay taxes, or to repay debts, and the notes could later be redeemed for the crop itself.
Bar tabs settled in goods
Frontier saloons worked a little differently than bars do today. Patrons would pay for their tab with vegetables, meat or even a quilt instead of money. Bartenders didn’t care, they could use the goods themselves, or turn around and resell them. Some saloons even kept a ledger, recording every debt in writing. Bartering for a drink kept the saloon alive and the beer coming.
Cattle or livestock trade
For farmers and townsfolk, money sometimes walked on four legs. In rural Kentucky, a lawyer might collect a cow for his services, while in Ohio, land was bought with horses. Doctors could walk away with pigs or goats, and a Missouri store might accept chickens in place of cash. Frontier towns like St. Louis often held livestock auctions to settle debts or trade animals.
Whiskey as payment
Picture barrels of whiskey stored in a farmer’s barn. They weren’t there just to drink, but to use as money. Just across the frontier, those whiskey barrels paid for groceries, wages, rent and taxes. Whiskey could be such good money because it kept well, was universally wanted and was easy to subdivide.
Shinplasters
Coins disappeared during the Civil War as people hoarded silver and gold. Merchants and towns printed small paper notes, nicknamed “shinplasters,” to use as change. They kept commerce going until the government produced official fractional currency.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
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