Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 December 1889 — MORMON TITHING SCRIP. [ARTICLE]

MORMON TITHING SCRIP.

The Quper Substitute for Money Used by the Latter-Day Saints. If you go into the principal office of the tithing-house, says a Salt Lake City letter in the St Louis Globe-Democrat, you will see a tall young man handling what looks like money. He is behind a counter and the counter is protected by a high railing. The man glances through the window, then looks down at the bills, and then goes on thumbing them like a bank teller. He goes to and from a big safe, carrying bundles done up just as bills are, with little bands of brown paper pinned about them. Sometimes the man doesn’t stop to count, but takes the amount on the brown slip as correct and passes out the money. This is Mormon money. It is the tithing scrip. It is used to facilitate the handling of the grain, hay, produce, and live stock which come in. If you pick up one of these bills you will find it very much like a bank-note in appearance. In one upper corner is the number of the bill. In the lower left-hand corner is the hoc signo of Mormonism, a bee-hive. The face of the bill reads: “General Tithing Storehouse. Good only for merchandise and produce at the general tithing storehouse, Salt Lake City, Utah.” Each note bears the signature of the presiding bishop. On the back is the denomination again and a vignette of the new temple at Salt Lake City. The back also bears the wording: “This note is not current except in the merchandise and produce departments of the general tithing storehouse.” The engraving is well executed and the printing is well done. The bills vary in colors. There are greenbacks for one department of the tithing house, brownbacks for another, and so on. By using this scrip the church is able to create a market for considerable quantities of the tithing. This scrip is given out in dispensing charity, It is used for paying for work on the temple so far as the workmen can make use of it. Employes of the tithing house receive their salaries or allowances partly in scrip. In numerous ways the Mormon money gets into circulation.