1 Cent - Safeway Stores

Safeway Stores issued small-denomination paper scrip primarily during the 1930s, when coin shortages and the practical difficulties of making exact change at high-volume grocery checkouts made fractional currency a genuine operational problem. This was not unique to Safeway — dozens of American retailers issued their own paper fractional notes during the Depression years — but Safeway's chain-wide distribution gave their scrip broader circulation than most local competitors could achieve.

Redeemable only at issuing locations, these pieces occupied a legal grey zone that federal authorities periodically scrutinized but never decisively moved against during the period.