1 Cent - Food City New York

Food City was a supermarket chain operating in New York, and like several American retailers of the mid-twentieth century, it issued its own paper scrip — small-denomination tokens of store credit used to avoid making change in coin during periods when coinage was scarce or simply as a practical convenience at checkout. One-cent scrip of this type was the smallest denomination issued and would have seen heavy counter use.

Retailer-issued paper scrip occupies an odd corner of American notaphily — legally neither currency nor a negotiable instrument, enforceable only at the issuing store.