1 Cent - Food Stamp Scrip Kwik Food and Liquor Mart

American food stamp scrip of this type was issued by grocery retailers to return change on food stamp transactions — federal food coupons could not be used to purchase non-food items, and cash change was prohibited under USDA regulations, so merchants created their own fractional tokens redeemable only in-store. This created a captive credit system that drew persistent criticism from consumer advocates throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

The USDA formally banned the practice in 1994, making all surviving scrip instantly void. Chicago examples from corner liquor and grocery operations like this one are the least likely to have been preserved.