1 Cent - Cousins Food Mart Chicago, Illinois

Cousins Food Mart was a Chicago-area grocery chain that issued small-denomination paper scrip to handle the perennial problem of exact change — a common workaround among independent retailers before rounding laws and coin-op solutions became widespread. This cent note is a piece of that informal economy: legally permissible as a trade token redeemable only at the issuer's own register, not subject to the same regulations governing government currency.

Chicago had a particularly active scrip-issuing retail culture through the mid-twentieth century, and grocery chains were among the most frequent issuers of low-denomination paper.