1 Cent - Food Stamp Scrip Goldfine's Foods

Food stamp scrip of this kind emerged from the original U.S. federal food stamp program launched in 1939, which issued blue stamps redeemable for surplus agricultural commodities. Participating retailers like Goldfine's needed fractional scrip to make change when a purchase didn't divide evenly into whole stamp denominations — the federal stamps themselves couldn't be split. This 1-cent piece is the smallest practical unit of that makeshift change system.

Goldfine's Foods operated in Duluth, and local merchant scrip of this type was never federally standardized, so printing quality and format varied entirely by retailer.