The E-Sylum:  Volume 5, Number 7, February 10, 2002, Article 12

X MARKS THE BUCK

  Paul Shultz adds: "Second question. It is often noted that
  early dollars frequently have problems, such as an X or
  initial scratched into them.   It seems much more common
  than on smaller denomination coins. It occurs to me that
  this may not be coincidence.

  A dollar was a very large amount of money for many
  people at that time, and may possibly have been held as
  savings for years.  If it were stolen, what better way to
  identify that it was yours than to scribe a distinctive mark
  on it?  Smaller denominations, which were worth less and
  may have changed hands more often, may not have gotten
  inscribed nearly as often. Is this theory possible, and is
  there any contemporary evidence for it, such as a letter or
  document describing someone scribing a coin to identify it?"

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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