Card money
In order to prepare playing cards or plain cardboard for use as currency, the medium had to be given a denomination, a seal, a serial number, and appropriate signatures.
When the colony faced insolvency owing to great expenses fighting the Iroquois and a diminishing beaver trade,[4] intendant Jacques de Meulles introduced card money to pay soldiers;[5] this soon spread into general use, including commerce.
In 1763, after another burst of inflation brought on by a turbulent war-time economy, card money was ultimately and permanently withdrawn from the settlement.
The "Mississippi Bubble" began to burst in May 1720, when Banque Royale notes were depreciated by 50% followed by a financial crisis in France.
[16] Denominations ranged from 5 sous to 50 livres, in different shapes to be easily distinguished by non-French speaking and illiterate population.
[14] In the early 1730s, again faced with a shortage of specie and letters of exchange, the Count of Maurepas recommended applying a card money system, similar to the one then in use in Canada, in French Louisiana.
[18] Cards were prepared and signed by the Crown's comptroller in Louisiana, with higher denominations requiring the countersignatures of the governor and ordonnateur.
[18] For the next two years the value of the card money remained stable, sustained by ordonnateur Edmé Gatien Salmon's issuance of letters of exchange in excess of the quota.
[1][2][3] In his 1997 book Surinam Paper Currency, Theo van Elmpt records a total of 94 issues of card money in the country,[1] and the Central Bank of Suriname estimates that the total face value of the cards issued was between five and ten million guilders.
[1] In the oral tradition of the Suriname Maroons, the term Wan Bigi Karta ("a big card") continued to refer to the sum of 3.20 guilders as late as 1900.
This money was generally oriented horizontally, and decorations could include revolutionary symbolism (such as a liberty cap or fasces), patriotic slogans, the name of commune where a billet was issued, or an ornate border.
[28] These billets de confiance bore no guarantee, but could be exchanged for assignats, a type of paper currency introduced by the revolutionary government of which there was a shortage.
[31] In February 1792 tax collectors stopped accepting payments in billets de confiance; economist Florin Aftalion [fr] suggests that this may have been due to concerns over counterfeiting.
[32] Veronique Deblon, writing for the National Bank of Belgium, notes that all issues of card money "could not be called unqualified success[es]", as they were capable of solving budget deficits but eventually were overproduced, leading to inflation.
[2] The numismatist Neil Shafer concurs, noting that the card money of Guiana "served its purpose" in spite of the devaluation.
