Images

Handwritten ~ private circulating bon, written in French and issued at St. Louis in the Upper Louisiana Territory payable in deerskin exchange.

Translation:
Good for twelve Spanish silver dollars at the rate of two and one-half pounds of deerskin to the Spanish dollar at St. Louis March 2, 1805.

On behalf of Francois Liberge Sam Solomon

(Sam Solomon, an intelligencer from Canada of Jewish descent, came to St. Louis in 1799 and continued to live there in spite of the Code Noire (Black Code), expelling all Jews, the law having been enacted in 1724 under the French regime and continued under the Spanish regime in Louisiana. Such restrictions became ineffective when the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory. Solomon worked for various St. Louis businesses, which needed his services.