Society of Ration Token Collectors - OPA Tokens

Zoins

I come across OPA Tokens in my searches and had always been curious about them. It turns out these are Federal Government tokens issued by the Office of Price Administration (OPA), a WWII era United States government agency.

I was surprised to find out that there's actually a Collectors Society for these that lasted last least from 1966 to 1979. Is it still running?

Here's a token:

Photo credits: alboxman

I looked up some history of these on HistoryBoard.com which has these in some nice looking slabs.

https://www.historyhoard.com/products/world-war-ii-opa-ration-tokens-1942

Origin: These vulcanized fiber tokens were issued by the Office of Price Administration (OPA), a United States government agency created during World War II in order to oversee the rationing of scarce goods and keep prices stable to curb inflation.

Ration tokens (and their companions, ration stamps) had no cash value, but were required to purchase certain goods. For everyday items like sugar or beef, a customer would need the right amount of ration stamps in addition to cash in order to make their purchase—the same was true for non-food goods like tires or gasoline. Each household was issued their own book of ration stamps to use, and these tokens were handed out as "small change" to split the value of a single stamp.

While all these tokens shared a similar design, they were issued two colors: red and blue. The different colors were valid for different products, but their functions were essentially the same.

Each token has been thoroughly inspected and includes a Certificate of Authenticity. They measure 16mm in diameter.

shorecoll

May have merged into TAMs, but idk.

Zoins

@shorecoll said:
May have merged into TAMs, but idk.

Looks like they are registered with TAMS, like they are with the ANA:

http://www.tokenandmedal.org/Links/page43/page43.htm

There's also some information pubilshed on E-Sylum as late as 2015:

https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v18n45a18.html

Zoins

And here's some info on the Society which indicates they have a 2000+ page reference! I didn't know that this area of collecting was that rich!

https://greatnonprofits.org/org/society-of-ration-token-collectors

etrucan said:
The Society comprises collectors of WWII ration ephemera issued by the U.S. Office of Price Administration -- OPA -- (circa 1941-1945). Rationing of food, gasoline, fuel oil, tires, shoes, stoves, bicycles, and typewriters. Food rationing was done with booklets of stamps and coupons and tokens (red and blue) used as change for unused portion of a food ration stamp. Membership (modest charge for dues) provides the member with a 2000+ pages CD with that covers EVERY OPA ration form issued. A high-quality, quarterly newsletter is published. The purpose of the Society is to advance knowledge of and informed collecting of OPA ration forms for all of the listed commodities.

Jzyskowski1

Gunna have to dig in a different area but I’ve got some ration stamps and a little memorabilia. Later today

Zoins

Many articles on these don't indicate what the colors are for but Antek wrote about this on the ANA website:

https://www.money.org/collector/user_66708/blog/a-guide-to-ww2-opa-tokens-an-obscure-section-of-numismatics#:~:text=There are two colors of,feel kind of like cardboard.

Antek said:
There are two colors of OPA tokens; blue and red. The red OPA tokens were for things like meats and fats, while the blue tokens were for processed foods.

Mintages are interesting too:

Antek said:
The blue is rarer than the red. It is estimated that at least 900 million blue OPAs were made and at least one billion red OPAs were made.

Imagine going to war and having to have ration food at this scale?

ricko

I have a couple of the Red Points.... I have kept them that my family had when they were used. Did not know there was a collector society/group. Cheers, RickO

Zoins

This was posted by SRTC President Donald Kolkman: