The Post Office Department implemented a money order service during the Civil War to give families a better way of exchanging money with soldiers far from home. When the service began in 1864, money orders were for domestic use only.
By 1869, the service was extended to include foreign money orders. The service was popular with the nation’s burgeoning immigrant population. This card shows the rates for postal money orders as of January 1907. Postal money orders remain a popular method of assuring the security of financial transfers.
