es to pass bad tobacco, engage in the tobacco trade,
or to take rewards. Tobacco offered in payment of debts, public or
private, had to be inspected under the same conditions as that to be
exported. The inspectors were required to open the hogshead, extract
and carefully examine two samplings; all trash and unsound tobacco was
to be burned in the warehouse kiln in the presence and with the consent
of the owner. If the owner refused consent the entire hogshead was to
be destroyed. After the tobacco was sorted, the good tobacco was
repacked in the hogshead and the planter's distinguishing mark, net
weight, tare (weight of the hogshead), and name of inspection warehouse
were stamped on the hogshead.

A tobacco note was issued to the owner of each hogshead that passed the
inspection. These notes were legal tender within the county issued, and
adjacent counties, except when the counties were separated by a large
river. They circulated freely and eventually came into the possession
of a buyer who, by presenting them at the warehouse named on the notes,
exchanged them for the specified amount of tobacco. And these
particular notes were thus retired from circulation. The person finally
demanding possession of the tobacco was allowed to have the hogsheads
reinspected if he so desired. If he was dissatisfied with the quality,
he could appeal to three justices of the peace. If they found the
tobacco to be unsound or trashy, the inspectors paid a fee of five
shillings to each of the justices, and they were also held liable for
stamping the tobacco as being good; should the tobacco be declared
sound, the buyer paid the fee.

Parcels of tobacco weighing less than 200 pounds in 1730, later
increased to 350, and finally 950 pounds, were not to be exported, in
such cases the inspectors issued transfer notes. When the purchaser of
such tobacco had enough to fill a hogshead, the tobacco was prized and
the transfer notes were exchanged for a tobacco note. The tobacco could
then be exported. Such small parcels were often necessary to pay a
levy, or a creditor, or it might have been tobacco left over from the
crop after the last hogshead had been filled and prized. These tobacco
notes provided the only currency in Virginia until she resorted to the
printing press during the French and Indian War. By the end of the
eighteenth century the reputation of the inspectors and the value of
the tobacco notes began to decline, due primarily to lax in