"85 Million Americans Hold War Bonds": a 1945 Treasury count

A 1945 Treasury War Finance Division poster prints one claim in large type, that 85 million Americans hold war bonds, over a hand gripping crumpled $100 bonds and the torch of the Statue of Liberty. It sells by headcount, and its verb is hold, the word other Treasury sheets of 1944 and 1945 also used (NAID 514205, WFD 983-A).

The sheet

A fist in the foreground holds a wad of crumpled $100 bonds. Behind it, at night, the Statue of Liberty's torch is lit. The headline is a number and four words.

85 MILLION AMERICANS HOLD WAR BONDS

OFFICIAL U. S. TREASURY POSTER

WFD 983-A

Who issued it

The sheet says it is an official Treasury poster, and the WFD code marks it as the War Finance Division's. FRAME credits the U.S. Treasury Department, War Finance Division, and the National Archives holds it in Record Group 44.

How to read it

The figure is the whole argument: so many people already hold bonds that the reader should too, and should keep his. The poster gives no source and no date for the count, and this site has no record to check it against, so the number stands here only as the Treasury's claim.

The verb matters. Earlier sheets said buy; by 1944 and 1945 the Treasury was also saying hold. Nest eggs won't hatch (1944) tells readers to "hang on to your war bonds," Care is costly (1945) says "buy and hold," and the 1946 Resolution asks "that every American buy and hold U.S. Savings Bonds." Under the terms printed on My Promise to You, a holder could cash in after 60 days. These posters asked people not to. A bondholder who redeemed was doing nothing the terms forbade, and no rule stood behind the posters' appeal to the crowd.

The peacetime sequel is Back Your Future With U.S. Savings Bonds (1946), in which "war" has dropped out of the bond's name. The buy-and-hold sheets are listed together on World War II war bonds and war stamps, 1941–1946.