Tennessee Obsolete - Merchant scrip & Banknotes

Introduction, Progress and Status of Development

Background
The Tennessee obsolete currency issued from banks, the state and local governments is covered by Paul Garland's book THE HISTORY OF EARLY TENNESSEE BANKS AND THEIR ISSUES. However, neither Paul's book nor any other source has been published on Tennessee merchant scrip. As we solicited information about our previous e-book, Chattanooga Money, Bill Swafford, Jr. gave us a copy of a listing with 279 Xerox copies of Tennessee merchant scrip. Tom immediately recognized it as a copy of Charlie Sedman's collection he had sold in the 1980s to the Schingoethes. We talked with Charlie Sedman and he agreed to let us use it as a starting point for publishing a reference on Tennessee merchant scrip. Charlie said that he and Paul Garland were going to do a book on Tennessee merchant scrip but never got to it.

Scope
The authors built a draft reference of Tennessee Merchant Scrip issued prior to about 1900 one city at a time over a period of 1-2 years in an electronic format to keep the publication cost at a minimum and allow continuous updating of the material over the time span. The approach was to build the reference on a web site where the partly completed reference can be accessed to solicit contributions of historical information, color images and listing of the scrip for inclusion. Initially the reference contained a listing of known Tennessee scrip with draft web pages from the cities we knew issued scrip. We included color images in the scrip listing. If we only had a Xerox copy of the scrip it was included with a note that a color image was needed. If we did not have an image of the scrip but knew it existed from catalog listings or other references we inserted a note that the image is needed.

New cities were added when new notes from that city were found and previous city's information was updated over time. Historical information and images was credited to each contributor within the reference. A "What's new" sequential time listing of contributions has been maintained on the Web site (see contributions section below) to encourage contributors and allow users to follow construction and updates.

The reference includes a listing of all known Tennessee merchant scrip, color images of all notes and background information for each merchant. Rarity was estimated and records of past asking / selling prices are included in an Excel file that is also continuously updated.

The scrip is listed within each city by issuing company, or signature with a few notes on each page. Where there a large number of notes from a single company they are listed on multiple pages.

Merchants Scrip Issued Before the Civil War
Most scrip issued prior to the Civil War was specifically printed for a specific company or businessman with the name printed and signed by the principle officer. During the Hard Times Period (1837 - 1842) banks created pre-denominated "checks" that the customers signed as they were issued to making change for banknotes. They also indicated they were redeemanble for goods not money to avoid the Federal law that taxed banknotes.

Civil War Merchants Scrip
Fractional currency or scrip came into prominence during the Civil War because US coins were hoarded because their bullion value was greater than their monetary value and because the CSA did not produce coins. The CSA did not produce any fractional currency in the early part of the war. Most of the scrip issued during the Civil War was not printed locally for a specific business. It was general scrip that any business could buy, sign and issue.

Merchants Scrip Issued After the Civil War
Most scrip issued after to the Civil War was specifically printed for a specific company in many different denominations with the company name printed and signed by an official of the company.

Publication Plan and Reference Format (updated 9/5/2016)
As the electronic reference was built; it was published on the web in a format that allows viewing on your PC. The web format allowed users to follow the construction of the reference and see what is needed that they can contribute.

Initially we planned to sell a book and use of the web site. However, after being advised a publisher or a loan to self publish would not want the web site to compete with the book selling. Therefore, when all books have been sold, access to the web site will be opened for nominal fee.

Expanded Scope
As we were assembling the material and building the web site for the Tennessee Scrip book the Schingoethe Collection began to be sold by R. M. Smythe. Their collection was the largest collection of obsolete notes that has ever been sold. Smythe generously provided us with high resolution images that we requested. At the same time Bill Sharp encouraged us to expand our scope to include all Tennessee obsolete notes. After consulting with numerous collectors and dealers we agreed to expand our scope to include all Tennessee obsolete notes. Bill provided us with an electronic copy of his whole collection (800+ notes) of Tennessee obsolete notes with comments on each note. In 2009 we applied for and won the Wait Award from SPMC. We used the $500 award to purchase software, Dreamweaver and Adobe In Design, for the project.

Note Organization in the book
Both the parent and the branch banknotes of the multi-branch banks, such as the Bank of Tennessee, the Planters Bank of Tennessee and the Union Bank of Tennessee, have the parent bank city printed on the note. The branch banks also have the branch city handwritten on the note. The parent banknotes may have the parent city handwritten on the note in addition to the printed parent city or the parent banknotes may be issued with the location of the hand written branch designation blank. Generally the same printed notes were used for the parent and each of the branch banks of the multi-branch banks. The parent and the individual banks were responsible for issuing and redeeming their own notes. The notes are listed by the city of each branch in this book. The rarity and price are significantly different for the same printed note depending on which branch issued it. The Tennessee legislature required that notes had to be redeemable at a location if they were issued at that location. (Example: The owners of the Bank of Memphis and the Bank of Chattanooga could issue notes from the other bank only if they were redeemable at that location.)

The scrip notes generally have the city of issue printed on the note. Most the scrip is redeemable at the same location. Each scrip note is listed in the scrip section for the city. Scrip that was not issued from Tennessee but is payable in a city in Tennessee is listed in the Tennessee city that it is payable (Example: scrip was issued by Jas. Randals in Atlanta, GA was payable in Bone Cave, TN is listed under Bone Cave). Scrip that is issued in Tennessee but payable outside of the state is listed in the Tennessee city of issue (Example: Scrip issued by J. G. L. Martin in Chattanooga, TN was payable in Eufaula, AL where he lived. It is listed under Chattanooga, TN.)

There are a few scrip notes issued in a small Tennessee city and payable in a larger Tennessee city bank. They are listed in the city of issue. (Example: Titus Nielson issued scrip in Trenton, TN, payable at the Union Bank of Tennessee in Jackson, TN is listed in the issued city of Trenton.)