When milling about an antique store one lazy afternoon, I came across an assortment of red and blue discs, haphazardly displayed inside a locked curio case. About the size and thickness of a penny, made from fibrous material, and designed to look like currency, I soon learned these tokens—and millions more like them—once served a vitally important role in America’s wartime economy during World War II. Read more
Tag Archive for: Tokens
One of the most significant casualties of the Civil War was pocket change. That’s right, pocket change. When it became clear that our nation was in for a long and bloody conflict, government-issued coinage began to disappear.