5 Dollar - Berkshire County Clearing House Scrip Berkshire County, Massachusetts

Berkshire County's clearing house scrip was issued in early 1933 during the wave of emergency currency that swept the United States ahead of Roosevelt's national bank holiday in March of that year. The Berkshire County Clearing House Association, like dozens of similar bodies across New England and the Midwest, issued scrip to keep local commerce moving when member banks were unable or unwilling to release deposited funds. It was a stopgap — explicitly temporary — and most participating businesses treated it as such.

American Bank Note Company's involvement gave the issue a legitimacy that mimeographed county scrip from the same period conspicuously lacked. Many 1933 clearing house issues were returned and destroyed once normal banking resumed, making surviving examples disproportionately scarce relative to original print runs.