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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kaparthy, post: 3292763, member: 57463&quot;]From my own research for several articles over the years....&nbsp; (I found out about them while working at <i>Coin World</i> 1999-2000. I later placed an article in <i>The Numismatist</i>. November 2002. I did a presentation for my local coin club last year.)</p><p><br /></p><p>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.&nbsp; 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. </p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 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 <i>Coin World,</i> 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…&nbsp; Ashcroft got a real dollar signed by Pangborn who now had stage money signed by Ashcroft.</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; A similar story is repeated in <i>The Happy Bottom Riding Club: the Life and Times of Pancho Barnes</i> 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 <i>Wings</i> (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. </p><p><br /></p><p>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.&nbsp; This is from his story from the June 9, 1980, issue of <i>Skyliner</i> magazine.</p><p>[ATTACH]870832[/ATTACH]</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; 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.&nbsp; During World War II, the practice spread from aviators to the soldiers, sailors, and marines they carried.&nbsp; Wounded men going home would collect a signed paper dollar from each buddy: &quot;When you get home, pal, have a snort on me.”</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 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.</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 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.</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; But when the war ended, so did the tradition.</p><p>[ATTACH]870833[/ATTACH]</p><p>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.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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