BOOK IN PROGRESS: TENNESSEE OBSOLETE PAPER MONEY

Recently The E-Sylum carried an interview from the Chattanooga Times Free Press of Tom Carson and Dennis Schafluetzel which we gave based on our presentation to the local Civil War Council in January. Our talk focused on how financial transactions were conducted using a mixture of Confederate States of America, state chartered banknotes and local scrip to replace silver and gold coinage which was being horded.

We used images of bank notes and scrip from the 14th edition of our electronic "Chattanooga Money" CD book to illustrate the myriad of currency types used during the war. During the interview we discussed our ongoing current project to develop and eventually publish a book on scrip and obsolete banknotes from the state of Tennessee.

Since the reprint of the interview, we have received congratulations from several The E-Sylum readers for completing our Tennessee obsolete book. We thank you, however, the work on the Tennessee state book is still in progress.

We are developing the Tennessee obsolete book on the web with historical information and scans of banknotes and scrip. Many dealers, collectors and auction companies have contributed information and scans of the notes and scrip. We have added all the scrip issues we know of to the website.

The banknotes from all branches of the Union Bank, Planters Bank, First Bank of Tennessee and the Second Bank of Tennessee have been added to the site in the past few months. If you would like to review, follow or contribute to the book use the following instructions:

Go to the book's web site at www.schafluetzel.org . Click on Tennessee Obsolete Merchant Scrip & Banknotes link and it will ask for your user name which is SPMC, and password which is SPMC6000 in both cases SPMC must be capitalized. The title page will appear. Select one of 100+ Tennessee cities, counties or railroads to view known merchant scrip and bank notes from that location. Need your help to review and contribute historical information, color images, new scrip listings, upgrades and corrections.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see: NEW CD BOOK: CHATTANOOGA MONEY BY DENNIS SCHAFLUETZEL (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v13n05a05.html)

Wayne Homren, Editor

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web