5 Point Processed Foods Rationing Stamps; Office of Price Administration

The Office of Price Administration administered processed food rationing through a point-value system rather than a fixed-commodity system — each stamp carried a point value, and prices shifted monthly based on supply conditions. A can of peas might cost 16 points in March and 8 in April. This made the stamps function more like a flexible scrip than a fixed coupon, and the OPA's monthly "point bulletins" became kitchen-table reading across the country.

The GPO produced these in vast sheets, perforated and bound into ration books. Book Four, issued from late 1943, used blue stamps for processed foods. Counterfeiting was prosecuted under federal law, though the low denomination made it rarely worth the risk.