Something more in your pay envelope this week?

RogerB

An unexpectedly heavy pay envelope 95 years ago did not mean Treasury workers got a hefty raise.

[Stock photo not from Andrew Mellon's personal stash of silver dollars that he used to pay the Soviets for discounted old masters' paintings stolen from the Hermitage in St. Petersberg when the US was not supposed to be doing any business with the Communists or their agents, but heck ! he was only Secretary of the Treasury.]

Hemispherical

200,000,000 toz of Ag for India.

That would be something to receive Ag $1 for pay in this day.

Smudge

So not really a raise, just subbing silver for paper?

Kkathyl

That’s QE old-timer style

Meltdown

Interesting. Wish they'd put a silver dollar in my paycheck nowadays.

kbbpll

In 1924 the silver in the dollar was worth 67 cents.

RogerB

Someplace, I have a table showing the location and content of silver dollars in Philadelphia Mint vaults -- sometime around 1926...? If enough members are interested I'll reserve some time to look for it.

ricko

@RogerB.... That would be interesting information.... Cheers, RickO

CaptHenway

Ah, pay envelopes filled with paper money and coins. I still hold by my pet theory that half dollars used to circulate because company paymasters used half dollars to more quickly count out net pay totals between $xx.50 and $xx.99, and when the business world started issuing pay CHECKS rather than pay ENVELOPES the demand for half dollars fell dramatically.
TD

RogerB

I agree about the initial circulation of halves in pay envelopes. The break down occurred once a merchant deposited the halves, they were not again paid out by banks.

Insider2

My grandfather worked for the city of Philadelphia. He came home with 5 silver dollars every payday. I don't know if he stopped at a bank or received them in the pay envelope.

Elmhurst

Written by Sir Humphrey Appleby ?

CaptHenway

@RogerB said:
I agree about the initial circulation of halves in pay envelopes. The break down occurred once a merchant deposited the halves, they were not again paid out by banks.

Many merchants did give them back out in change. I remember getting halves in change for small purchases paid for with a dollar bill.

WillieBoyd2

My mother was a US Navy pay officer from 1944 to 1946 stationed in San Francisco.

She told me that sailors and marines were paid in cash to the nearest two dollars, bills only no coins.

RogerB

@CaptHenway said:

@RogerB said:
I agree about the initial circulation of halves in pay envelopes. The break down occurred once a merchant deposited the halves, they were not again paid out by banks.

Many merchants did give them back out in change. I remember getting halves in change for small purchases paid for with a dollar bill.

True. However the rate of pay out was much lower than for smaller denominations, so a half dollar did not get as many "touches" in a year as a quarter. Hence, it did not overall circulate as well. Getting better circulation from halves was part of the reason for separate designs for subsidiary silver in 1916. The Mint Bureau liked halves because it took half the work to produce twice the value of coins - which looked good to Congress.