War usually takes a toll on coinage. For example, in the United States, copper cents were replaced by ones made of steel during World War II. During the Civil War, the Union issued paper ``coins`` called postage or fractional currency to fill the shortage. Citizens of both the Confederacy and the Union began hoarding copper and silver coins almost immediately. In fact, the hoarding associated with the Panic of 1857 was hardly over before a new bout of hoarding started again. Foreign merchants feared for the future worth of paper notes and insisted on the hard currency. What few silver coins escaped private hoarding were soon scooped up and shipped to Europe for needed war supplies.
