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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kaparthy, post: 1824414, member: 57463&quot;]I know that is what we say. It is the common story. I just wonder if it is true or not. </p><p>At the wage level of 1860, $5 was more like $500 today. Depending on your craft and place an unskilled workman got 10 cents an hour for a 10 or 12 hour day.&nbsp; Farmers made less cash and 90% of the people lived on farms or rural villages, not in cities. </p><p><br /></p><p>Moreover, we have the contrasting stories from England before the Conder Tokens when workmen would go in a gang to the mercer&#039;s (grocer&#039;s) with one large coin.&nbsp; Other solutions were for the shops to carry the tab until payday. It is all in George Selgin&#039;s book on the Birmingham button makers and the first modern coins.&nbsp; But we have no stories like that from the Civil War.</p><p><br /></p><p>Yes, we have postage stamps for small change and Gault&#039;s holders in NYC, but that is an isolated case. And speaking of &quot;cases&quot; why are those Gault cases not more plentiful?&nbsp; It was an expediency, only, and never was needed much wider.</p><p><br /></p><p>Again, I know what the standard references say, or some of them, anyway.&nbsp; I just hold reserved judgment on it.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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