Ivory marked by the Royal African Company. International Slavery Museum, Liverpool. Wikimedia Commons.
Series E war bonds were sold in small amounts, often by payroll deduction, so households would save dollars that rationing would not let them spend.
A stretched household that signed up for a bond out of each paycheck had less cash for the week and a claim on dollars later, if it could avoid cashing early.
A household with a defense wage and little legal shopping could pile up bonds that worked as a savings plan, pushed by patriotism and by empty shelves.
A company running a payroll plan, and a bank selling the bonds, were part of the Treasury’s effort to fund the war and to keep civilian cash from chasing scarce goods.
Series E bonds were bought below face value and paid no interest check along the way, so the gain came from holding them.
Cashing out early returned less than the face amount.
The bond stored a wartime wage for a family and borrowed that wage for the government while the shops were kept half empty on purpose.
Kennedy, Freedom from Fear (1999)