50 Cents - City of North Bend North Bend, Oregon

North Bend issued these myrtlewood rounds in 1933 when the city, like dozens of Oregon municipalities, ran out of federal currency entirely during the bank holiday that followed Roosevelt's emergency closure of U.S. banks in March of that year. Myrtlewood — a hardwood found almost exclusively in the Oregon Coast Range and parts of northern California — was selected partly for its availability and partly because it was genuinely difficult to counterfeit convincingly. The city contracted a local mill to produce the blanks.

North Bend's scrip circulated alongside similar issues from Coos Bay and other nearby towns for only a matter of months before federal currency was restored.