1 Cent - AMA Grocery Dept. Tucson, Arizona

AMA here almost certainly refers to the Army & Air Force Exchange Service's predecessor structure, or more likely a cooperative grocery operation tied to military or civil service personnel at one of Tucson's installations — Davis-Monthan Air Force Base being the obvious candidate. Scrip of this type was issued to restrict purchasing to authorized patrons and to keep transaction currency within a closed commissary economy, avoiding the need to make change in coin during periods when small denomination coinage was either scarce or administratively inconvenient.

Tucson-printed military and institutional scrip from this period rarely survived in quantity; it was designed to be spent, not saved.