10 Cents Island Creek Stores Company

Company store scrip from the coal-producing counties of West Virginia, where operators like Island Creek routinely paid wages partly in scrip redeemable only at company-owned stores. This arrangement kept miners economically captive to their employer — a practice widespread enough that West Virginia passed legislation against compulsory scrip payment in 1915, though enforcement was inconsistent and the notes continued in use for years afterward.

The narrow strip format was deliberate: small denominations were issued as thin slips to discourage accumulation and complicate counterfeiting of low-value pieces.