In order for us to properly appreciate the full grandeur of postage and  fractional currency it might be well to properly assess the economic conditions just prior to and during the Civil War.Although the Civil War began with the firing on Fort Sumpter April 12th, 1861.
Prior to this, around 1840, the United States was in a depression that was known as the Jackson-Van Buren depression. It was quite severe and set the ground work for the public not to trust paper currency of large denomination. They felt that the hard money (also known as SPECIE**)was the only medium of value due to its precious metal content. The use of postage stamps were introduced to fill the void left by the hoarding of  hard money.(specie)

In 1857, the United States was in the grip of another severe depression. In fact, these unsettled conditions were probably what led to the election of Lincoln in 1860. To slow down the hoarding of hard money, Congress approved legislation which provided for the issuance of postage and other stamps to the Assistant Treasurer (Spinner) in  quantity he deemed necessary for the purpose of alleviating  the small change shortage. In 1862 stamp or postage currency was accepted as payment for goods.

The first appearance of this new postal currency was used as pay by the Army Paymasters in mid August 1862 . The notes released to the public appeared by September. The supply of these early notes, 1st and 2nd issues, hardly kept up with demand and it was not until late in 1863 that it started to make a positive impact on commerce and the economy.

The South even had its fair share of fractional currency during the war. Most towns, merchants and states issued these notes and there are even some United States notes printed on CSA paper that was intercepted when it  was shipped from England during the blockades of the southern states. The notes actually show a CSA water mark and priced at a premium to regular issues.

This area of collecting is very interesting, but the notes are rather fragile paper and not many survived in good shape. In fact a lot of these were sewn together to keep and torn off as needed (thus pin holes) and some were even used to treat soldiers with shin splints or open wounds. During the war, there was a shortage of  cloth, gauze and bandage's. When the supplies were exhausted, they would use pieces of ordinary paper to dress a wound. When that was gone, the Medic's used fractional currency, thus the term "shin plasters"*.
Once you start collecting these, they become very addictive and there are several series of notes to choose from. Like coins, it does help to specialize due to the fact that there are so many variations and types to collect.
I hope you have enjoyed this compact lesson on fractional currency and hope you try a few fractional notes and enjoy the rewards they provide.
Robert
Legend's Coin Co.

Shin Plasters*

In the absence of cloth for bandages, they would use fractional currency to treat wounds. In fact, the public felt as if this money was worthless.  I feel that this is the reason you see so few true gem examples in this arena today.

Specie**

The definition states that it is hard money. The term was widely used before the Civil War as all commerce was based on payment in specie. A good example of its use can be found on silver certificates as late as 1930 when there obligation stated that they were backed by silver dollars, a form of specie.

ps these notes are a great investment now and once we see the census for each note, we will see how truely rare they are :-)