5 Cents Tokyo Ordnance Depot

Messes and canteens operated by U.S. military units in occupied and post-occupation Japan issued their own scrip to keep dollar currency within controlled channels — part of a broader effort to suppress black market conversion into yen. The Tokyo Ordnance Depot N.C.O. Mess scrip circulated among non-commissioned officers stationed at the depot during the occupation and into the treaty period, redeemable only within that specific facility. These unit-level issues were never centrally catalogued during their active life, and most were discarded or destroyed when the mess closed.

Survival rates are low precisely because nobody thought to keep them.