COIN A N D CURRENCY I N EARLY U T A H BY LEONARD J. ARRINGTON*
A
PRIME DUTY of government is to provide a sound monetary
system. W h e n government is in the hands of ecclesiastical leaders, as in early Utah, it becomes necessary for them to interest themselves in a matter which is usually considered to be outside the scope of religion. T h e steps taken by leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to establish and maintain a satisfactory circulating medium in the first few years after the initial settlement of the Great Salt Lake Valley in 1847 demonstrate a versatility and resourcefulness in temporal matters that is unique and noteworthy. That the leaders of the Latter-day Saints should have been concerned with the economic welfare of the Great Basin colony does not come with great surprise to the student of Utah history. Mormon theology from the very beginning gave equal emphasis to the temporal and the spiritual, and regarded them as two related aspects of a fundamental unity in nature, social affairs, and the infinite. In taking the measures necessary to assure an adequate supply of money for Utah's early settlers, Mormon leaders were merely assisting in the completion of their oft-declared objective —building up the Kingdom of God in the mountains. The basic monetary problem in early Utah was the shortage of United States coin and currency. It was this shortage which Utah's pioneer leaders sought to correct by manufacturing and issuing "valley" coin and currency. Valley currency was printed in 1849 and, although "sound" from the standpoint of backing, its circulation was limited to use within the territory. Valley coins were minted under the direction of President Brigham Young in 1849, 1850, and I860, 1 and were used not only as a medium of *As will be seen, dies were made and some coins stamped in 1848, but these were never placed in general circulation, and, in any event, no coins were stamped with the year 1848 as coinage date. Coins were also manufactured in 1851, but seem to have borne the 1850 date on their face. *Leonard J. Arrington is assistant professor in die Department of Economics at the Utah State Agricultural College, Logan, and has contributed several articles on Mormon economic activities to various scholarly journals.
