Issuing

Scrip

Scrip is payment paper issued by a firm, a chamber of commerce, or a town, redeemable in a stated term and place, not by a central bank. It is exonumia and a bearer voucher, not a Federal Reserve Note. Baraboo’s 1933 Golden Jubilee — Shafer WI100, designed by E. B. Trimpey — was announced on 28 June and redeemable through 1 November. Signatures of P. L. Gust and O. L. Gust. No record of the number printed survives; this record does not invent one.

This collection publishes the John Ringling 5¢, serial A4895; the Chas. Ringling 10¢, A2844; the Al. T. Ringling 15¢, A2819; the A. C. Ringling 50¢, A1054; and the Ringling Bros. $1, A2002. The 25¢ waits for a serial or certificate. Scrip is not an obsolete-bank remainder or an MPC. It is not Colombia’s 15-centavo student ticket either, which is transport paper. Each Baraboo serial is an object; a second record is not opened for the same A4895.

In the Depression, local scrip covered a shortage of small change. That does not make it federal legal tender. Anyone who collects it documents issuer, term, and serial, as on a Pick. The glossary crosses scrip with exonumia and bearer note, and leaves the FRN and the silver certificate on their own records. None of that circus paper is for sale.

Baraboo is not German Notgeld or a Colombian lazaretto token. It is chamber scrip in a circus winter-quarters town, with A serials already published. The type record gathers the denominations; piece records wait for their numbers. The article covers the phenomenon and links A4895, which is the example that illustrates the face.

Examples in the collection

5¢ · Baraboo scrip · 1933

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