1 Cent Ohio; Beverage Tax

Ohio's 1933 Beverage Tax stamps-cum-revenue notes were issued in the immediate aftermath of Prohibition's repeal under the 21st Amendment, ratified in December of that year. The state moved quickly to establish a taxation apparatus before federal repeal was even finalized, anticipating a flood of newly legal beer sales and needing revenue instruments ready at the county and retail level almost immediately.

At 26 x 24 mm, these are among the smallest paper fiscal instruments issued by any U.S. state authority — closer in size to a postage stamp than a banknote. The underprint served as the primary anti-counterfeiting measure, modest by any standard but appropriate for a one-cent denomination where the forgery incentive was essentially nil.