Short Snorters

On RCC, discussing "Continental Currency" bri wrote:
Continental Currency
Date: Thurs, Aug 10 2006 9:15 pm
You might be referring to what is called a 'short snorter' maybe?--a
very
old military tradition. ...
Some of those notes are very historic and very quite massively valuable
....
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I wrote a couple of articles about Short Snorters for the ANA and the
SPMC. Below is one I wrote for the MSNS. The tradition of "military
money" might go back 2500 years to the very invention of coinage, as
coins may likely have been created as bonus payments (if not direct
payments) to mercenary Greeks from Ionia fighting for Lydian tyrants.
One branch of this tree is the "challenge coin." With Short Snorters,
one of the purposes was to "challenge" each other later: if you did not
have your short snorter, you paid for a round of drinks.

ON THE ORIGINS OF "SHORT SNORTERS"
by Michael E. Marotta (MSNS 7935)

A "short snorter" is a banknote or other paper money, signed by people
who share a common experience. As far as most numismatists know, the
"short snorter" originated during World War II. Typically, a soldier
going home would collect a dollar bill from each of his buddies with
their name on it. "When you get home, pal," they would say, "have a
snort on me."

There were many ways to create a short snorter. A platoon, battalion,
or company might be shipped out together and the men would pass their
notes around, each one signing as many as he could. Snort snorters
grew as notes were taped or pasted to each other in long streamers.
Sometimes, the crew of an airplane would swap notes the first time they
crossed the equator, or landed on foreign soil. Some of these became
"challenges." If you had served with someone and swapped short
snorters and they ran into you again, you had to show the note or else
buy the next round of drinks.

During World War II, American soldiers were paid in real money, usually
in American money, often in foreign currency, depending on where they
were stationed. By September, 1943, Allied troops had taken Italy.
From England after D-Day, Americans moved into France, Holland, Belgium
and Germany. American troops in the Pacific Theater were paid in Dutch,
French, British and Australian money. I scanned, archived, and
returned a set of short snorters on French signed notes by Americans
moving through Tahiti. They were not soldiers or sailors or Marines,
but civilian contractors. These consultants from North American
Aviation, Chance Vought, Bendix and other companies reported to the
front to provide expertise in the maintenance, operation, and
modification of their equipment.

After World War II, American soldiers were no longer paid in real
money, but in Military Payment Certificates. The scrip notes made
black marketeering harder. Short snorters on MPCs are known, though
they are less common than earlier notes. World War II saw the glory
days of short snorters.

The tradition actually began in the 1920s among barnstormers. Carl
Cleveland of Mercer Island, Washington provided a story that ran in
Coin World on September 24, 1989. Cleveland pinpointed a pilot named
Jack Ashcraft as starting the tradition. Ashcraft flew for Van Gates
and Clyde Pangborn in the Gates Flying Circus. In August, 1925, the
Gates Flying Circus was entertaining in Syracuse, New York. The flying
circus had a supply of stage money. Ashcraft tricked Clyde Pangborn
into signing two notes, one real, one play, and swapping them.
Ashcraft came out ahead. Clyde Pangborn later flew into aviation
history by crossing the Pacific nonstop with Hugh Herndon, Jr. Short
snorters began a history of their own.

The Happy Bottom Riding Club: the life and times of Pancho Barnes, by
Lauren Kessler substantiates this story. Florence Lowe Barnes was the
favorite granddaughter of Thaddeus Sobieski Lowe, who flew observation
balloons for the Union army during the Civil War. After an unhappy
marriage, she got the name Pancho on a Mexican vacation. Barnes
learned to fly in the Spring of 1928. She set a speed record and flew
some cross country races. Barnes also socialized with people from
Hollywood and she rounded up and organized her flying pals into a team
of stunt pilots for the movies. In the Clark Gable movie, Test Pilot,
Barnes appears in one shot, dressed as a mechanic, standing behind the
star. The Great Depression cost Barnes her family home in Burbank.
However, flying out over the high desert, she knew another place she
could buy cheap. When Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier over Muroc,
Pancho Barnes was already the engine of social life there.

In the late 1920s, Barnes and her friends used the "short snorter"
dodge to take hotshot pilots down a few notches. They would tell the
egotistical victim that a select group of pilots wanted him to be
member of the "Short Snorters." There was no such club, of course.
Pancho and her friends just wanted the pilot to pay for the privilege
of being humilated.

Pilots are a self-selected group. Today, there are only about 650,000
licensed pilots in the USA and a total of only about 300,000 aircraft
of all kinds. In the 1920s and 1930s, pilots were even more isolated.
Aviators also cross borders very easily. It would be surprising to
discover that pilots in New York have a tradition unknown to pilots in
California. Therefore, it is credible that short snorters began with
the Gates Flying Circus in 1925. For fifteen years, they remained a
quirky inside joke among aviators. Then in World War II, millions more
people joined the tradition. Fifty years ago, a wounded GI going home
was worth a buck to his buddies. Today, new short snorters are
extremely rare.