1 Cent - A.J. Bayless Phoenix, Arizona

A.J. Bayless Markets operated a chain of grocery stores across the Phoenix area from the 1920s through the 1980s. This one-cent note is merchant scrip — private fractional currency issued to solve the perpetual small-change problem retailers faced, particularly acute in the postwar decades when coin shortages periodically disrupted everyday commerce. Grocery chains were among the most frequent issuers of such scrip, redeeming it in-store against future purchases rather than paying out coin.

The practice was entirely legal under U.S. law, provided the scrip was not designed to imitate federal currency.