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1 Cent - El Cambio Albuquerque, New Mexico
| Issuer | El Cambio (Albuquerque, New Mexico) |
|---|---|
| Year | |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | Plain tan cardboard certificate with no vignette or decorative underprint. The face is divided into six bordered corner panels each bearing the denomination numeral "1¢" in bold letterpress type, with the store name "EL CAMBIO" rubber-stamped in blue ink at centre. Vertical side panels carry rotated text identifying the U.S.D.A. Food Stamp Program. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Reverse is entirely unprinted tan cardboard, with a pencilled collector's notation visible in the lower right corner. No text, vignette, or decorative element is present. |
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| Comments |
El Cambio was a Spanish-language newspaper published in Albuquerque in the late nineteenth century, and like many small commercial publishers and merchants of that period, it issued its own fractional scrip during the chronic small-coin shortages that plagued the post-Civil War American Southwest. This 1 cent piece on cardboard is a representative example of that improvised private currency — locally trusted, regionally worthless beyond the issuer's own transactions.
The cardboard medium was common for low-denomination merchant scrip; metal was expensive to strike in small quantities, and paper this thick survived daily handling better than thin banknote stock.