5 Cents - Food Stamp Scrip Homestead Meat Co. Inc.

Depression-era meat company scrip of this type was issued as a customer loyalty mechanism — buyers received fractional stamps with purchases, redeemable against future meat orders. The Homestead Meat Co. Inc. of Houston operated in a city that remained relatively insulated from the worst of the 1930s collapse due to petroleum revenues, yet local grocers and meat dealers still issued scrip widely, partly to retain customers and partly to manage cash flow when coin was being hoarded.

Five-cent food stamp denominations are the most frequently destroyed tier of merchant scrip — spent in small transactions and discarded rather than saved.