Private Production of Scrip-Money in the Isolated Community

Abstract

This paper examines the appearance of one type of privately-produced currency, which had the generic label "scrip." This money appeared at widely different times and places in the United States between 1820 and 1940 in spite of federal laws prohibiting its issue. The most sophistic ated and best developed example of scrip seems to have occurred in th e coal mining regions of Appalachia, especially in West Virginia. Thi s experience and its implications for monetary behavior are examined here. Copyright 1987 by Ohio State University Press.