This one is pretty typical for the kind. ' I found this one in a dealer's junk box for $5, recorded it and then gave it to our Public Affairs photographer. (I am the PAO for our Texas State Guard regiment.) Judging by the scotch tape, it was part of a streamer or roll. I can make out "War Photographer" easily enough. The rest is hard to decipher consistently. See the "Short Snorter Project" website here: http://www.shortsnorter.org
I read sometimes this was used as a bet. every soldier at the table produced their short snorter. The one with the LEAST amount of names on the bill bought the table of soldiers drinks
Yeah, what's the deal on these anyway? Sometimes I see these on eBay, and sometimes I bid on them, and sometimes I win one. They almost always are war related. Where did the name come from? Is it like Southernman suggests? Being a product of the '60s and '70s , I kinda thought it was because when the bill is rolled up, it was rather short, and you can guess the rest.
Very cool and thanks for the link that details exactly what they are. I have something like that, but it’s tucked away and I know most of the signatures on it. I’ll try to find it when I’m stateside and share.
Thanks for posting, I wasn't familiar with short snorters. I'm always grateful when I learn something new at my age. They're really cool!
From Wikipedia (it's gotta be true ) : A short snorter is a banknote inscribed by people traveling together on an aircraft. The tradition was started by Alaskanbush flyers in the 1920s and spread through the military and commercial aviation.[1][2] During World War II short snorters were signed by flight crews and conveyed good luck to soldiers crossing the Atlantic.[3] Friends would take the local currency and sign each other's bills creating a "keepsake of your buddy's signatures"
Lol - the short snorter (keepsake bill) was around long before the decadent 1960s - this one was a 7 oz. bottle of beer from Eastern PA, c.1955 (click to enlarge)
From my own research for several articles over the years.... (I found out about them while working at Coin World 1999-2000. I later placed an article in The Numismatist. November 2002. I did a presentation for my local coin club last year.) A short snorter is paper money, signed by people who share a common experience. During World War II, with 16 million men and women in the American armed forces, the custom spread rapidly. After the war, it faded just as quickly. A “short snort” is a pour of whiskey. If you signed a bill with someone and later could not produce it when challenged, you had to buy the next round of drinks. Although soldiers and sailors knew about short snorters, they first were popular with airmen because the tradition began in the 1920s among barnstormers. According to a September 26, 1984, story in Coin World, a pilot named Jack Ashcraft started it in August 1925 among the aviators of the Gates Flying Circus. The air show had a supply of stage money. Ashcraft signed his name on a play dollar. He then approached Clyde Pangborn. Ashcraft asked Pangborn if he had a dollar. He did. Ashcraft told him to sign his name on it. What for? You’ll see… Ashcroft got a real dollar signed by Pangborn who now had stage money signed by Ashcroft. A similar story is repeated in The Happy Bottom Riding Club: the Life and Times of Pancho Barnes by Lauren Kellen (Random House, 2000). Barnes was the granddaughter of Civil War balloonist Thaddeus S. C. Lowe. A barnstormer herself, and holder of a speed record, she played a male pilot in the Howard Hughes production Wings (1927). It is important to understand that this was during Prohibition, when alcohol was supposed to be illegal.Always an open home to pilots, her dude ranch and bar became a hangout for test pilots from Edwards Air Force Base. You can find many stories online. Trans World Airlines (TWA) Captain Larry Girard authenticated a short snorter from the Air Transport Command of World War II. This is from his story from the June 9, 1980, issue of Skyliner magazine. Any occasion could motivate the creation of short snorters. The crew of an airplane would swap notes the first time they crossed the equator, or landed on foreign soil. During World War II, the practice spread from aviators to the soldiers, sailors, and marines they carried. Wounded men going home would collect a signed paper dollar from each buddy: "When you get home, pal, have a snort on me.” During World War II, troops were paid in the currency of the country they were occupying. Fighting in Europe, Africa, and the Pacific, they could be paid in Dutch guilders, British pounds, or French francs, as well as American dollars. It was common for warriors, medics, and civilian contractors to build long streamers of short snorters in those and many other currencies. Having the longest roll was itself soon a challenge. It also mattered who autographed the money. The signatures of General Eisenhower, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Bob Hope are among the notables. The rolls became living diaries. But when the war ended, so did the tradition. Except, of course, of those of us who keep the tradition alive. This dollar was signed by the members of my Basic Non-Commissioned Officers Class at Joint Base San Antonio in 2016.
I have several hundred short snorters. Here are Joe Louis and Ray Robinson among a handful of nurses and a doctor from the 11th Field Hospital.
