>From: lim@toadflax.cs.ucdavis.edu (Lloyd Lim)
 >Subject: ANA's Money Talks transcript

Transcript No. 294
November 18, 1993

GREAT AMERICAN SMOKE-OUT DAY
by Gerald Tebben

Today is the "Great American Smoke-Out" . . . the day when many Americans
try to break the smoking habit, even for just a day.  But did you know
tobacco was once used as money?

This is "ANA's Money Talks."  Tobacco may be a controversial crop today--
but it's had a history as money that goes as far back as the day Columbus
first noticed the Arawak Indians smoking it in the Caribbean.

Tobacco wasn't just a barter item.  It's served as valid legal tender at
various times.  It was already widely accepted as currency when the first
Virginia General Assembly met at Jamestown in 1619.  The first law passed
by the Assembly set the value in coin of tobacco at 3 shillings a pound.

Everything was priced in tobacco, including wives.  Colonial men reportedly
paid 120 pounds of tobacco for the 17th century equivalent of a mail-order
bride.

Increased cultivation caused the value of tobacco to decrease to a penny a
pound by 1665.  Then, as now, the government intervened.  It tried,
unsuccessfully, to limit the size of the crop by licensing planters.
Tobacco continued as currency in Virginia, though it was devalued.

Coins and paper money eventually spelled the end of tobacco as currency in
Colonial America.  But some of those early notes were backed by tobacco,
instead of the customary silver or gold.

In post-war Germany, tobacco . . . cigarettes, actually . . . surfaced once
again as money.  Though not officially sanctioned, cigarettes were
universally valued at 50 cents apiece in 1945.  American GIs contributed
mightily to the local economy.  And many Germans earned their living in
those terrible times by collecting discarded butts, and fashioning new
cigarettes from the leftovers.

This has been "Money Talks."  Today's program was written by Gerald Tebben
and underwritten by Western Publishing Company, serving collectors for more
than 50 years.  This is a production of the American Numismatic
Association, America's coin club for over a century.  For a free
transcript, or to enter a drawing for a free ancient Greek coin and a
historical U.S. coin, call 1-800-367-9723.  Request program 294.

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Nigel Allen                     ae446@freenet.carleton.ca