South Carolina £3 Promissory Bonds

The pound was the currency of South Carolina until 1793. Initially, Pound sterling circulated, supplemented from 1703 by local paper money. Although these notes were denominated in £sd, they were worth less than sterling, with 1 South Carolina shilling = 8d sterling. The first issues were known as Proclamation Money. They were replaced by the Lawful Money issue in 1748, with 1 Lawful shilling = 4+2⁄3 Proclamation shillings.

The State of South Carolina issued Continental currency denominated in £sd and Spanish dollars with 1 dollar = 32+1⁄2 shillings (8 dollars = 13 pounds). The continental currency was replaced by the U.S. dollar at a rate of 1000 continental dollars = 1 U.S. dollar.

Promissory coupons such as these were drawn on the Financial Agency of the City of London in England but guaranteed by the State Treasurer of South Carolina for the use of intercontinental trade. These each bear the signature of South Carolina Treasurer, Niles G. Parker, a Republican who held the post from 1868-1872. They have been collected upon (plus interest) which is why they have cancellation cuts.

NILES GARDNER PARKER (born 27 Jun 1827 and buried 9 Apr 1894 in Essex County, MA) had been an officer of the 1st Regiment of Massachusetts Cavalry & Companies E & A, and led the 1st Regiment of South Carolina Volunteer Infantry (colored), which was one of the first black regiments, if not the first, to be mustered into the service –and they were proud of that 1st designation. The 1st South Carolina regiment spent most of the war serving on various expeditions, skirmishing and doing garrison duty along the South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida coast. In February of 1864, the 1st South Carolina’s designation was changed to the 33rd Regiment of United States Colored Troops (USCT). The survivors of the assault on Fort Wagner who were memorialized in the motion picture “Glory,” were remaindered to this regiment until the end of the War. The men of the 1st/33rd then set out to make new lives for themselves in the post-Civil War south.

Though all of the details are not known at this time. Captain Niles G. Parker decided to stay on in Charleston and he must have sent for his family at this time. In 1866 or 1867, Captain Parker was for short time the senior officer of Castle Pinckney, which was, for a time, used as a jail or prison for local troublemakers. In 1868, with a great desire to help with the reconstruction in whatever way he could, Niles G. Parker decided to run for State Treasurer on the Republican ticket and was elected South Carolina State Treasurer. He was succeeded by Francis Lewis Cardozo, the first African American to hold a statewide office in the United States.

This provenance makes this an important historical document, not just currency of the Reconstruction Era.