Figure 1 (300dpi)by Bob Schreiner | February 24, 2001
During the difficult economic times of 1837, there was a proliferation of scrip, paper money issued by merchants for use as small change. Some of the scrip was payable in the commodities the merchant sold. The Philadelphia note shown in Figure 1 is payable in beef. It bears the distinctive signature of L. Shuster, whom we might conclude was a butcher. He tells us he operated stall 31 High Street Market, corner of Front.
Figure 1 (300dpi)
Long after I obtained the beef note, I saw the note in Figure 2 on eBay, and recognized the signature, the same L. Shuster, and I bought it. It is a note of the Corporation of Spring Garden, signed by the assistant treasurer. Oddly, the note also lists Philadelphia with the date. Both notes are dated in May 1837. The signatures seem clearly from the same person, although the beef note signature is bolder and slants to a greater degree.
Figure 2 (300dpi)
If L. Shuster was a merchant in Philadelphia and also assistant treasurer of Spring Garden, we might conclude that he lived in Spring Garden, which ought to be within 1837 commuting distance of his shop. Could this be verified?
I went to my road atlas. There is no High Street in Philadelphia, but Shuster's stall could be at the corner of Market and Front Streets, a prime downtown location. There is also a Spring Garden Street not too far from this intersection.
Spring Garden as a municipality exists in my road atlas, but it is a suburb of York, about 100 miles from Philadelphia, no 1837 commute.
Could I get better information from a contemporary map? I went the the map collection of the library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a great resource. The helpful librarian quickly found 1811 and 1838 Philadelphia street maps.
From the 1838 map, what is now Market Street is listed as High or Market Street--both names were apparently used then. Spring Garden was a community of 11,141 people just north and a bit west of the downtown area, clearly within 1837 commuting distance. Philadelphia in 1838 had "more than" 200,000 people. Apparently once a separate municipality, Spring Garden is now a part of Philadelphia. The present Spring Garden street runs through that area. The 1811 map provided additional information. Market/High Street is listed simply as High Street. Spring Garden is there, though it is much smaller.
Markets in the middle of High Street were the center of an active commerce, as shown in the illustration from the Philadelphia Inquirer, about 1838, Figure 3.
Figure 3 (300dpi)
The notes have more to tell. The Corporation of Spring Garden notes are listed in Richard T. Hoober's Pennsylvania Obsolete Notes and Scrip, the standard catalog for this state. Hoober displays a 50 cent note, Figure 4 (that note is now in my collection). The date of both Spring Garden notes is May 15, 1837. But the signers are clearly different. Were there two assistant treasurers at the same time? That certainly is possible. Another possibility is suggested by the word "counterfeit" lightly written on the back of the note in Figure 1. Could this be either a counterfeit or a genuine note with an illegal signature? Maybe, but it seems unlikely that L. Shuster, an established business man with his own scrip, would risk illegally signing his name on a one dollar note. Figure 5 shows a likely counterfeit from Spring Garden. Notice the crudeness of the Washington portrait. Hoober lists no such note.
Figure 4 (300dpi)
Figure 5 (300dpi)
More could probably be learned about L. Shuster and the government officials of Spring Garden, but that would almost certainly require a trip to Philadelphia to examine local historical records such as city directories and municipality records. Perhaps a Philadelphian reading this article is moved to carry this work to the next step.
Learn more about the map collection at UNC-CH at http://www.lib.unc.edu/maps
