Mississippi sales tax token

laserart

I "found" one the other day. I don't konw much about it, correction , anything about it. I'd like some help here. White ,about the size of a quarter,numeral 1 in the center. How were these used?

cladking

In the 1930's several states enacted sales taxes. Rather than have the tax kick in at a predetermined level as is typical today, the tax was often payable at lower levels in tenths of cents. Many purchases in those days were below the threshhold which might have been established so the state governments issued "coins" called sales tax tokens to make change for amounts less than a cent. The "1" on your token is to represent one mil or one tenth of a cent. The only other denomination typically used was the five mil. (There are a few oddball denominations like Illinois' 1 1/2 mil.)

The federal government eventually decided that these were being used as coins and forced the states to quit issuing them. There are a couple hundred major types from about fifteen states. Most are extremely common in circulated conditions but some are tough in high grades. There are some rarities especially if you include varieties or uncs. The demand for these is exceedingly small or there would be a lot more of these issues considered rare. There is a club for collecting them called the American Tax Token Society.

The Ms token is actually a little better one but still common.

laserart

thank you very much for that. I only picked it up Saturday. I never had heard of these before.