1 50⁄100 Dollars Ohio Sales Tax Receipt

Ohio's Depression-era sales tax token system was extended into the wartime years, and this fractional receipt represents the state's effort to collect tax on purchases too small for a whole-cent calculation. The 1% sales tax passed in 1934 created an immediate arithmetic problem at low price points, and paper receipts like this one were the solution Ohio chose over metal or fiber tokens used elsewhere.

Columbian Bank Note Company, based in Chicago, handled a substantial share of Midwestern fiscal printing work during this period. The watermark underprint was a modest anti-counterfeiting measure — these receipts had genuine redemption value and were worth forging in bulk.