The E-Sylum:  Volume 6, Number 12, March 23, 2003, Article 4

LEATHER MILITARY SIEGE MONEY

  David Klinger writes: "I recently acquired an interesting used
  book from an online bookseller (B&N): "Money and Conquest -
  Allied Occupation Currencies in World War II", by Vladimir
  Petrov (1966 - The Johns Hopkins Press).  This is from Petrov's
  introduction:

  "During the prolonged siege of Tyre in the year 1123, the Doge
  Domenigo Michieli exhausted his treasury chest. Because his
  brave Venetians clamored for pay and some reportedly
  contemplated desertion, the resourceful Doge had leather
  coins struck and issued them to pay his troops. The issue
  of this "money of necessity" was accompanied by a solemn
  promise that it would be redeemed at full face value upon
  the return of the fleet to Venice. Historians did not record
  the reaction of the crusaders to this early substitute for good
  gold, or indeed whether Domenigo Michieli, noted for his
  shrewdness as well as his ferocity, actually honored his
  pledge. But in all probability these leather coins were the first
  issue of what has eventually come to be called military currency.
  Although the evidence is meager, it seems that throughout the
  Middle Ages and on into the modern period, such currencies
  were used from time to time, serving a single limited purpose,
  that of paying troops when supplies of regular money were
  inadequate or non-existent; they bore no relation to the
  currencies of the occupied enemy territories.

  In the nineteenth century military currencies assumed a new
  and important role: they were used not only to pay troops but
  also as a means of paying the people of an occupied territory
  for supplies requisitioned by the occupying army.

  During World War II military currencies were used by all the
  major powers and to a much greater extent than ever before.
  In addition to paying the troops and compensating the owners
  of requisitioned property, military currencies also served as a
  major means of manipulating the economies of occupied
  territories."

  I wondered if any of these leather "coins" still exist?  I never
  heard of them before this."

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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