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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;johnmilton, post: 4266862, member: 101855&quot;]<u>Sutler Tokens</u> were issued by merchants who supplied goods to soldiers in the field. These merchants traveled with the soldiers in wagons and sold goods to them, often at inflated prices. Their products included coffee, tea, tobacco, candy, cakes, sugar, canned goods and on rare occasion, alcohol. On a few occasions, sutlers opened storefronts when a regiment was stationed in a fixed area. Each sutler was officially commissioned by the War Department. The sutler tokens had values that were frequently in the usual 5, 10, 25 and 50 cent denominations. Many sutlers also issued paper or carboard script. All sutler tokens and script range in rarity from very scarce to rare.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1086848[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1086849[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; The Civil War tokens were the most popular monetary substitutes during the Civil War because they were cheap and durable. If a merchant could get his customers to accept them at a cent apiece, he made a profit because his costs were lower, sometimes considerably lower, than that. There are over 10 thousand varieties and probably three million or so surviving pieces. As a group, they are common, but there are many rare varieties.</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; In 1864, Congress passed legislation that outlawed the use of Civil War tokens. In their place, the legislators reduced the size of cent to a coin that is similar to the piece we have today. They also authorized the bronze Two Cent Piece and the three and five cent nickel pieces to relieve the coin shortage. The nickel five cent piece is still issued today.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; After the war the silver and copper coins returned to circulation, ending the shortage of small change. It would take more than a decade for parity to be restored between gold coins and paper money.</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; The Civil War left many scares on our nation. Well over 620,000 men were killed. Hundreds of thousands more were maimed for life. Sectional animosities continued for several generations.</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; The shortage of small change subsided with the end of the war, and unlike the war itself, there were no long lasting negative consequences. In fact America ended up with the nickel five cent piece which would become a staple for the five and dime store industry which came on the scene later in the 19th century.</p><p><br /></p><p>The End[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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