After members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints entered the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, they had little money to spend and no viable way to trade. They had left behind their property in Nauvoo, Illinois to begin a new life in Utah. It quickly became apparent that they would need a form of currency that would allow them to trade with East Coast companies and to conduct business within their community. At first, the Mormon population introduced scrip, Valley Notes, and livestock-backed currency. After discovering and mining gold in California in 1848, the Mormons in Salt Lake City began to use it as their new form of currency. Brigham Young, the church leader, was reluctant to send church members to California to collect the gold, but eventually decided that it was in the church’s best interest to do so.
