10 Cents 'Postage Currency' Pattern

By 1862, coins had vanished entirely from circulation — hoarded by a public that no longer trusted paper money and desperately wanted metal. The Treasury's stopgap solution was Postage Currency: small notes backed by the face value of U.S. stamps, printed by the millions. These 1863 patterns explore whether a more durable, coin-format alternative might work instead. Judd 325 and 326 differ in composition, a deliberate test of material viability under the assumption that any adopted piece would see brutal daily handling in small transactions.