🚀 go-pugleaf

I found the following article in rec.collecting.coins.
It was posted by ana@athena.csdco.COM (American Numismatic Association),
a group of coin collectors based in Colorado Springs.

                                                      Transcript No. 532
                                                      October 18, 1994
                                    ALASKAN MONEY
                                   by Ken Bressett

      They called it "Seward's Folly," and it happened 127 years ago today.
But as we all know---William Seward had the last laugh.

      This is "A-N-A's Money Talks," and today, we'll look back at the
purchase of Alaska from Russia.

      People called Alaska an ice box, and ridiculed Secretary of State Seward
for buying the rugged and forbidding land from Russia.  No one knew then of
the wealth to be found in Alaska's gold and minerals, nor of the promise of
fertile land and opportunity.

      Alaska never had a local money of its own.  In most cases, trade was
carried on using coins from other countries---or, the natives bartered their
furs for blankets, beads and buttons.

      Before Alaska became a state, private tokens, known as bingles, were
used throughout the territory.  Coins were always in short supply---and with
the growth of local businesses, the need for coins became critical.  Merchants
solved the problem by making their own money in the form of tokens that could
be used in trade.  It was good for business, because customers were forced to
return to their stores to use the tokens.

      In 1935 the U.S. government also made its own form of token money to
help supply families who'd recently been re-settled into a fertile valley just
north of Anchorage.  Farmers from the Depression-stricken Midwest who moved to
Alaska were given the government tokens as assistance money.  They were
similar to today's Food Stamps, but could be used for all kinds of purchases.

      Private tokens were used throughout Alaska for many years, until one day
when someone tried to buy stamps with them at a Post Office in Seattle.  He
was shocked to learn his Alaskan bingles were not acceptable as money---and
were "legal tender" only in the Territory of Alaska.

      Alaska's tokens soon became only a memory.  Even before Alaska became
the 49th state, regular U.S. coins were in use by everyone.

      This has been "Money Talks."  Today's program was written by Ken
Bressett and underwritten by Heritage Rare Coin Galleries, the world's largest
rare coin firm.  This is a production of the American Numismatic Association,
America's coin club for over a century.  "Money Talks" is a copyrighted
production of the American Numismatic Association, 818 N. Cascade Ave.,
Colorado Springs, CO 80903, (719)632-2646, ana@athena.csdco.com.

--
forwarded by:
Nigel Allen     ndallen@io.org