CHAPTER 45 - Fur Currency in Alaska

Abstract

This chapter discusses the use and related aspects of fur as currency in Alaska. In their dealings with Eskimos, white traders used as a kind of currency tobacco, which the natives wanted mainly for snuff, and accepted at one time in payment for all services and purchases. Glass beads, too, served similar purposes. The pelt of a wolf was worth several “skins” in trade, while a number of pelts of musk rats or marmots were required to equal the value of one “skin.” After the advent of Europeans during the period of the gold rush, gold dust became the currency of Alaska. To provide the means with which his expedition could purchase fish, his agent weighed out a number of little packets of gold dust, carefully sealed up in stout writing paper like medicine powders, some worth a dollar. Some native tribes used dentalium shells as their currency right to the second half of the 19th century. Furs were paid for in such shells. Larger European species of dentalia were imported for the requirements of this trade.