Whispers of War
Civil War-era coins 'speak' to modern-day collectors By Jack Trammell
Since their earliest
use as a medium of exchange in the ancient Mediterranean
world, coins have been surrounded by mystique and intrigue.
In part due to their intrinsic economic
value and portability, and in part due to their beauty
and aesthetic appeal, coins have always been more than
just another collectible - they have often been props
in the center of human drama. In American history, and
particularly during the Civil War, coin lore is a rich
part of the nation's legacy.
Many a soldier, North or South, at some point in his
service carried a U.S. Coronet gold $20 double eagle
somewhere upon his person, usually representing the
accumulated savings of several months of pay. Due to
inflation and the wide use of paper currency, gold represented
hard cash that was good in any setting.
A gold $20 coin held the equivalent
buying power of roughly 500 2005 dollars, and thus represented
a sizable asset. Soldiers found various ways to safely
conceal and store them, ranging from sewing the coins
into their uniforms to hiding them in the ground. It
was very common during and immediately after the war
to find coins of all types left on the battlefield.
Thomas Knox, a war correspondent, wrote: "Two days
before the battle [at Wilson's Creek, Missouri], ten
dollars were paid to each man of the First Kansas Infantry.
The money was in twenty-dollar pieces, and
the payment was made by drawing up the regiment in the customary
two ranks, and giving a twenty-dollar piece to each man in
the front rank. Three-fourths of those killed or wounded in
that regiment were of the front rank. The Rebels learned of
this payment, and made rigid search of all whom they found
on the field. Nearly a year after the battle, a visitor to
the ground picked up one of these gold coins." One wonders
how many of the Kansas men were shot by rebels, and how many
by their own comrades.
Many coins left on battlefields now reside
in family hands or in museum collections. My uncle, for example,
found a war-issue double eagle on a former Union cavalry campsite
near Shelbyville, Ky., along with other artifacts and debris.
Also found were foreign coins, which saw considerable circulation
due to hoarding and shortages of U.S. coins.
Coins sometimes served other than monetary
purposes. Many coin collectors are familiar with the story
of CSS H.L. Himley commander Lt. George Dixon and the I860
Coronet gold S20 piece that saved his life by deflecting a
bullet at the Battle of Shiloh. Dixon later died while piloting
the world's first successful attack submarine, and the coin
in question has now been recovered along with his remains
from the Hiinlev's interior.
Records indicate that many other objects
- Bibles. flasks, canteens, belt buckles - saved soldier's
lives by stopping or deflecting bullets, but because
of the relative smallness and light weight of coins,
stories about their efficacy are more amazing. Smaller
coins such as Indian Head cents, silver 3-cent pieces,
or Seated Liberty half dimes and dimes are often found
on battlefield sites, and sometimes their condition
clearly indicates that they were struck by a bullet
or shell fragment; in rare cases they diverted blunt
force just enough to prevent a mortal wound. Larger
coins like the quarter dollar, half dollar or $20 coin
could even stop a bullet under ideal circumstances,
as the Dixon story and other reports indicate. More
often than not, though, coins weren't enough. Surgeons
commonly removed from the inside of wounds material
that the bullets carried in - cloth, paper, fragments
of wood - and coins or coin fragments.
Soldiers on both sides were notoriously superstitious
or religious about their pre-battle routines. It was
very common for men to adopt a lucky object just prior
to or once they survived their first real combat ("seeing
the elephant" as veterans described it), and coins,
tokens and medals were perhaps the most common objects
used in this role. A shipmate aboard the CSS H.L. Hunley
with Lt. Dixon was apparently carrying his own lucky
piece, a copper or bronze medallion, when he drowned
along with the rest of the crew in the Hunley 's famous
last attack.
Many soldiers and sailors also carried good
luck cents or "lucky pennies." The phrase "lucky
penny" is difficult to trace, but certainly predates
the Civil War and even the founding of America (pe/ghinn pisich
meant "lucky penny" in old Gaelic, for example),
and many soldiers kept a lucky penny hidden somewhere on their
person. The use of small cents in general commerce was a relatively
new phenomenon, and until hoarding of all coins intensified
during the war, the popularity of the new Indian Head cent
was universal. It was easy to grasp between the thumb and
forefinger (and rub for good luck), and it could be stored
almost anywhere.
When cents were replaced with tokens in many markets, there
were many "lucky tokens" as well, some of them dangerously
close to qualifying as outright counterfeits of the popular
Indian Head cent. Many Civil War tokens exhibit one or two
holes, indicating someone (often a soldier) wore it as a charm
or necklace. A slight varia-tion included token-like small
brass bezels that encased photographs of loved ones or commanding
officers.
Coins could also bring bad luck, especially
when mixed with greed and avarice. Rose O'Neal Greenhow,
the famous Confederate spy, is a perfect case in point.
After a successful trip to Europe in 1864, where Greenhow
had published a book and worked to promote the Confederate
cause, on her return the blockade runner she traveled
on ran aground near Wilmington, N.C. In spite of the
captain's assurances that the vessel would be safe,
she insisted on heading for shore in a tiny lifeboat.
When the boat capsized and her companions tried to save
her, she refused to relinquish the leather bag of gold
coins strapped to her neck and she drowned.
In another case, an Indiana soldier died under mysterious
circumstances near Memphis, Term., after turning over
almost two dozen gold $20 coins to another soldier for
safekeeping. When the surviving soldier was confronted
about his comrade's death and the suspicious money,
he claimed to have "lost" the gold. A court
martial was initiated against the survivor, now a murder
suspect, even though the dead soldier had "acquired"
the gold under suspicious circumstances himself.
All cliches about Gone with the Wind
and Sher-man's march to the sea aside, looting was a
regular wartime activity for soldiers on both sides,
and coins were the most coveted items of all. It was
difficult to trace their previous ownership once immediate
possession changed, and they held purchase power in
all venues, including illegal commerce with the enemy.
The Official War Records document repeatedly
that gold and other coins were part of the spoils of battle.
In one case, a conscientious Union officer tried to send a stash
of gold $20 pieces captured in battle back to Washington, D.C.,
"to aid in paying the interest on the national debt."
His motives, however, where not completely altaiistic: "I
do not permit it to be dispersed here, ..." he said. "There
is a premium on it, and I prefer to have greenbacks circulated."
Any enlisted men on either side would have preferred the gold.
The corrupting
effects of gold coin were not limited to soldiers and
officers in the lower ranks. Even generals such as Confederate
Gen. P.G.T. Beauregarcl were not immune to its tantalizing
and tarnishing effects. After Confederate forces seized
the U.S. Mint in New Orleans, a vast amount of gold and
silver coins was confiscated and moved to a commercial
bank vault in Columbus, Ga. The reported face value of
the coins was $2.5 million, or the equivalent of more
than half a billion in 2005 dollars. When Beauregard sent
word to the bank's president through an aide's written
memo to let him know he was taking the money, the general
left no doubt as to the seriousness of his request: "In
case of your refusal to comply with this demand I shall
feel it my duty to take forcible military possession."
Though the Confederate military machine was understandably
desperate for hard cash to buy arms abroad and to finance
war industry at home (and essentially forced ordinary
citizens to use worthless paper money for commerce while
the government hoarded silver and gold), Beauregard's
tone was more avaricious than usual.
Most men in the Confederate army or navy had bigger concerns
that Confederate monetary policy. Few soldiers in the
lower ranks on either side had a documented interest in
numismatics. Though coin collecting as a hobby was well
established by the time of the Civil War, most ordinary
soldiers could not afford to engage in what would have
been considered an expensive distraction. Coins were more
often to them practical and perhaps superstitious tools
for survival.
Later in the war, when inflation began to
run rampant in the South, many Confederate soldiers were glad
to trade a worthless Confederate dollar bill for a single
real U.S. silver dime - or even less - as long as it was round,
metallic and issued by some type of erstwhile authority. Even
Union soldiers, usually better outfitted than their rebel
counterparts as the war dragged on, and almost always better
compensated (especially relative to value of the respective
dollars), simply did not like paper money. They always preferred
specie, i.e., coins.
After the war, many surviving soldiers kept their smaller
lucky coins or medals, but for most a coin such as a gold
double eagle was simply too much money to save without an
extremely good reason. Many veterans, especially the tens
of thousands with war-related disabilities, found that gainful
employment was difficult to locate. In the devastated South,
a few copper or silver coins could be the difference between
survival and starvation.
Collectors today often do not fully appreciate the importance
of even common circulated coins from the time period. There
are likely already coins in many collections that once resided
in the pockets of Civil War soldiers, and some that remain
buried on the many battlefields to this day. There are some
that were won and lost at the card table, and some that paid
for a stamp to send a last letter home. Ironically, these
coins have become more accessible to collectors today than
they were for many common people during the war.
