1 Cent - Safeway Stores San Francisco, California

Safeway issued small-denomination paper scrip primarily during the 1930s, when coin shortages and Depression-era cash-flow pressures pushed many large retailers into producing their own fractional currency. These tokens of obligation were redeemable only at the issuing store, which kept the money — such as it was — cycling within the company's own tills. The San Francisco attribution ties the note to the chain's original Pacific Coast stronghold, where Safeway had its deepest early penetration before national expansion.