1 Cent - Cottage Food Center Cottage Grove, Illinois

Cottage Grove, Illinois is an unincorporated community in Champaign County — small enough that a grocery or general store issuing its own scrip was a practical necessity rather than a novelty. Trade tokens and merchant scrip from this part of rural Illinois were commonplace through the mid-twentieth century, filling the gap left by chronic small-denomination coin shortages in communities too remote to rely on regular bank deliveries. The Cottage Food Center example fits squarely in that tradition.

No verified print date or issuing period has been established for this piece in the major scrip references.