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1 Cent - Big Ben Super Discount Stores Los Angeles, California
| Issuer | Big Ben Super Discount Stores |
|---|---|
| Year | |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Dollar (1785-date) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Light green paper with blue letterpress printing throughout. The issuer's logo in a hexagonal frame appears at top centre, flanked by ornate guilloche vignettes at left and right, each bearing a large numeral '1¢'. Redemption conditions are printed in the central field below the denomination. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Plain light green paper, essentially unprinted, with obverse text visible in bleed-through. Handwritten pencil annotations appear at the right margin, added by a subsequent owner. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Comments |
Big Ben Super Discount Stores was one of dozens of Southern California retail chains that issued private scrip during the postwar discount retail boom — a marketing device designed to keep customers cycling money back through the same store rather than spending change elsewhere. This particular cent denomination is catalogued by Schimmel, whose reference work remains the primary tool for organizing the sprawling field of American merchant scrip.
Paper merchant scrip of this type was rarely redeemed in full — issuers banked on breakage, the industry term for scrip that customers lose, forget, or simply never bother to redeem.