50 Cents Military Payment Certificate

Military Payment Certificates were introduced in 1946 to suppress the black market trade in U.S. dollars that had plagued occupied Europe and the Pacific after the war. By controlling the scrip used to pay American troops, the Army could periodically call in a series overnight — "conversion day" — with no advance warning, rendering hoarded certificates worthless and cutting off local speculators who had accumulated them.

Series 471 and 472 were the second MPC issue, valid from 1948 until the Series 481 changeover in 1951. Tudor Press, a Boston-based commercial printer, produced this series under military contract — an unusual assignment for a firm better known for trade publishing work.