WASHINGTON D.C. SOUVENIR MINIATURE SHOE MADE OF MACERATED CURRENCY WITH PARTIAL LABEL

$125.00

Quantity Available: 1

Item Code: 1202-184

Shipping: Determined by Method & Location of buyer

To Order:
Call 717-334-0347,
Fax 717-334-5016, or E-mail

A miniature shoe made from macerated currency for sale to tourists of the nation’s capital. This has a paper label on the bottom: “Made of the the U.S. Bank Notes redeemed and macerated by the U.S. Government at Washington, D.C. Estimated at $5,000.” The label shows some small shows just wear to the “U” of the “U.S.” but is otherwise fully legible. It served as both a certificate of authenticity and was certain to impress with the dollar amount. For those wondering, “Why a shoe?” We can only respond, “Why not a shoe?” and note in passing its rather Colonial form with high heel and prominent buckle, a fitting memento of a visit to the city named after our founding father.

Items molded from macerated U.S. currency were popular tourist souvenirs in Washington, D.C., from about 1875 into the 1920s. Instead of burning old currency taken out of circulation, which still left some fragments floating around that might be found and redeemed, the government switched to maceration in 1874, which ground it while wet into pulp. The prospect of seeing many  thousands of dollars destroyed was a must-see for tourists and the resulting pulp itself, containing small bits of paper and traces of ink, became the medium for molded souvenirs of at trip to Washington, with several producers creating portrait busts of notables, patriotic Lincoln or Uncle Sam top hats, miniature buildings like the Washington Monument, but also a wide variety of knickknacks in more sentimental form, like small animals, shoes, etc. They remained for sale in souvenir shops well into the 1920s, but lost a lot of appeal after 1908 when the government added chemicals to the pulp, destroying the bits of color, with the result that a few entrepreneurs, not be deterred, simply added their own bits of colored paper. [sr][ph:m]

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