Wow History #8 - Stamps as Money

During the Civil War, physical money disappeared as the general public hoarded all of the coins in circulation. As a result, conducting business became quite difficult. To solve this emergency situation, people began using postage stamps as money. In this episode, Ron Guth describes the use of postage stamps as money, then the evolution from postage stamp envelopes to encased postage, an ingenious invention of a young entrepreneur named John Gault. Finally, Ron describes how outside forces, including governmental innovations such as Postage Currency and "Greenbacks" killed the use of postage stamps as money.