FOLLOW-UP: HOLED COINS AS SLAVE CHARMS

I just wanted to express my appreciation to you and to your readers for their insights back in June. I'm revising the section on currency and folk beliefs now, and the printouts of your newsletter are good company.

I have only been able to find "Emblem of Good Fortune" postcards on ebay from the 20th century, which is still useful, but should anyone come across such evidence of market-produced gifts of dimes for good luck, I would be eager to see them.

For whatever it is worth, slaves did indeed have access to coined money, even as slaves, as many were allowed to sell items they grew in their own gardens at market on days off and/or "hired out" (the owner leased their labor) to someone else and were in some cases permitted to keep some of what they earned. It's interesting. Slave owners were often using their slaves as collateral and didn't have cash on hand so had to get loans from their slaves to buy goods, pay debts, etc.

Christmas time was known as a year-end celebration because (as it followed the harvest) owners were able to give the "gift" of paying back the loaned money they borrowed from their slaves. Of course, there were plenty of enslaved people who never did have any reason to handle money, but they likely knew someone who did.

In a time as thrilling and frightening as wartime emancipation (and in a South where Confederate currency became increasingly worthless), I am grappling with how freed people evaluated the value of a dime as a good luck charm and/or/versus as a piece of silver currency.

I did also see the Davidson article but truly appreciated the precise interaction your readers demonstrated, and all I have on archaeological studies on dimes and African American communities is from Davidson and the McBrides in Kentucky, so if any other digs cross your desk, keep me posted, please. Again, thanks to you and your readers for the attention, interest, and insights.

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
HOLED COINS AS SLAVE CHARMS (http://www.coinbooks.org/v21/esylum_v21n20a15.html)
MORE ON HOLED COINS AS SLAVE CHARMS (http://www.coinbooks.org/v21/esylum_v21n21a14.html)

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