Daily AncestorTobacco money
Tobacco money means tobacco used in place of cash in colonial Virginia and nearby colonies, where debts, fees and taxes were often stated in pounds of tobacco.
Coins were scarce, so tobacco itself served as money, counted in pounds of weight. Under a Virginia act of 1730, planters packed tobacco in hogsheads and brought it to public warehouses, where inspectors graded and weighed it and gave the planter crop notes for its value.
Those notes often passed from person to person like cash. Colonial governments also set official values on tobacco so that payments in it could be entered in pounds, shillings and pence. By about 1800 tobacco was losing ground as money, and paper money and the dollar took its place.
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Daily Ancestor. "Tobacco money." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/money-measures/tobacco-money. Last checked 2026-10-03.