When specie payments were suspended, about January 1, 1862, both gold and silver coins disappeared from circulation. The place of the subsidiary silver coins was for a time supplied by the use of tickets, duebills, and other forms of private obligation, which were issued by merchants, manufacturers, and others whose business required them to "make change." Congress soon interfered, and authorized, first, the use of postage stamps for change; second, a modified form of postage stamp called postal currency, and finally, fractional paper currency in denominations corresponding to the subsidiary silver coins. The highest amount authorized was $50,-000,000. The highest amount outstanding at any time was $49,102,660.27, and the amount still outstanding, though not in use as money, is $15,245,183.88, of which $8,375,934 is officially estimated to have been destroyed.