Occupation: Note Shaver

[Barnesville Blues]

So while researching the original officers of the two companies who formed the majority of the 4th Georgia Sharpshooters, I am looking at one in the 1860 Census who has his occupation listed as "Note Shaver" Now after doing a google search, I came across this following definition from yourdictionary.com

note-shaver
Noun
(plural note shavers)

1. (US, slang, dated) One who buys banknotes at a discount greater than the legal rate of interest.

I don't really understand how this would have worked back then. I mean today there are a lot of banks who might do this...and I also have known people in the past that will buy a lot of a foreign currency when they see the conversion rate drop on a historically strong currency such as sterling...but how would this have worked for a small town Georgia boy in 1860?

 

[Schwallanscher]

i give you let's say 9 dollars in gold for a 10$-bill

 

[Barnesville Blues]

i give you let's say 9 dollars in gold for a 10$-bill

I see so he would have basically been trading currency for gold?...he was just charging a slight commision basically. I suppose this would take quit a substantial amount of money to get started and it does appear this family was relatively well. Off. His father was living in the city limits of a rather large town but is listed as a farmer by occupation but the property value is through the roof. He is living with his father at the time. The value of his fathers realestate in the 1860 Census is 50,000 dollars and the value of his personal estate is listed as 75,000 dollars. This young officer has no realestate according to the census but his personal estate is valued at 6,500...not chunk change for back then. So it looks like his father was most likely a large Planation owner with a realesate and personal estate values like that. They likely had the means to start a buisness such as this.

IN comparision, my own family who was living in the same county, about five miles away from this family has a realestate value of 800 and personal estate value of 317....so these certainly do appear to be rich folks.

 

[Schwallanscher]

wouldn't work without a desire for real money aka gold or silver coins instead of paper