1 Cent Ohio Sales Tax Receipt

Ohio's Depression-era sales tax apparatus generated enormous quantities of these fractional receipts, which functioned as change-making instruments rather than currency — retailers issued them when tax calculations produced fractions of a cent that couldn't be settled in coin. By the early 1950s, most states had quietly abandoned such systems, but Ohio persisted longer than most. The Merrick Lithograph Company, a Baltimore firm, handled production for several state tax receipt programs during this period.

The watermark is the sole security feature — modest for a fiscal instrument, but adequate given the low denomination and the legal penalties attached to counterfeiting state tax tokens.