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1 Dollar United States Department of Agriculture Food Coupon
| Issuer | United States Department of Agriculture |
|---|---|
| Year | 1990-2000 |
| Type | Vouchers |
| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Intaglio-printed coupon in brown ink; the central vignette reproduces a portion of John Trumbull's "Declaration of Independence" over a Liberty Bell guilloche underprint. Web-pattern intaglio border frames the coupon value panel; the right edge is perforated for booklet separation. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Blank reverse with occasional bleed-through of obverse intaglio printing and watermark impressions visible against light. |
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| Comments |
USDA Food Coupons occupy an odd corner of American notaphily — they are not currency in any central bank sense, yet they functioned as a parallel payment instrument in retail grocery transactions for decades. This series, issued under the Food Stamp Act framework, was produced by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the same facility responsible for Federal Reserve Notes, which accounts for the security watermark and the overall quality of the substrate.
The program's coupon design was overhauled in 1990 specifically to combat counterfeiting, which had become a genuine operational problem for the USDA by the late 1980s. Electronic Benefits Transfer eventually made these paper instruments obsolete; most states had fully transitioned away from coupons by 2004.