Table Of Content

Prison Tokens, Coupons and Scrip of the United States and Canada by Bob Hewey and Jim Delaney Copyright 2020 by Bob Hewey and Jim Delaney Use of this book, including copying, is permitted for private, non-commercial use only. Use of the numbering system to describe the tokens listed herein is permitted, provided proper acknowledgement is given. i Prison Tokens, Coupons & Scrip of the United States and Canada Acknowledgments We can’t express enough thanks to those that shared their knowledge, wisdom and support to help create this catalog. We would like to give specials thanks to the following individuals. Dick Hanscom (Alaskararecoins.com) for information, scans and literature on Alaskan items. John Byers for information and scans of Texas scrip. Les Smith for information and guidance on Michigan items. Bob Smith (Missouri tokens) Tony Chibbaro for information and scans of South Carolina items. Darryl Chapman for information and scans of Tennessee items. Eric Jensen for information and scans of almost all of the Alberta items. Jim Astwood for information and scans of almost all of the Manitoba items. Dave St. Onge- Curator/Conservateur for Musée Pénitentiaire du Canada We also appreciate those sellers on eBay who generously allowed us to use scans of prison scrip items they had listed. Their acknowledgements are included in the listing notes. Finally, we owe a debt of gratitude to the late Jerry Zara for creating what most consider to be the first comprehensive guide to this hobby in his book Prison Tokens and Medals of the United States. It also includes some historical information about a number of the pieces in the catalog. We highly recommend that if you do not already have a copy you should contact his publisher, Paul Cunningham, and obtain one. He has them available for $25 postpaid. For any orders, send a check or money order to Paul Cunningham, P.O. Box 1, Tecumseh, MI 49286. ii Forward You may ask, “why were there special kinds of money used in prisons, jail and reformatories?” There are good reasons not to allow legal tender coins and bills in the hands of prisoners. The ready availability of such currency could encourage bribery, extortion, gambling and facilitate acquisition of contraband and escapes. Still, there needs to be some type of money so that inmates can purchase discretionary items, such as snacks, tobacco, toiletries and reading and writing supplies. This catalog will focus on the token coinage and scrip issued to address these problems in the United States and Canada. According to our research, the first significant numismatic look at this subject is contained in an article published in 1960 by Jack F. Burns, Research Associate, Section of Coins and Medals, Carnegie Museum. More recently, Jerry Zara’s Prison Tokens and Medals of the United States was published by Paul Cunningham in 1992. This 162-page hardcover book provided the most comprehensive look at the topic to date, and this new catalog makes occasional reference to Zara’s work and cross-references our listings to his numbers where possible. The first widely used alternative currency in prisons and jails were tokens. While these reduced the chance of bribery of correction officers and hindered escape, they did not eliminate their use for gambling, contraband and extortion. To counter this, institutions would put limits on the value of such tokens that the inmate could draw from an account or have in his or her possession. Other than tokens, coupons issued in booklets or attached as tear-offs to cards, punch cards and credit slips have been used in prisons to address the purchasing needs of the inmates. Now, as with the transportation industry, I’m sure that electronic cards have come into use, replacing other forms of scrip. But the scrip currency of our penal institutions makes an interesting and challenging field for collecting. There were a number of at-risk youth and truant school institutions set up for delinquent or otherwise wayward boys and girls. Those that were part of the State or Provincial Board of Corrections are included in the general listing. However, there were private, non-official institutions, and we have listed these in a separate section. One of the best known of these institutions is Boys Town founded in 1917 in Nebraska. It issued tokens for its Student Bank in denominations from 5 (cents) to 5.00 (dollars). Another institution was the George Junior Republic, first established in 1895 in Freeville, NY. Other similar “Junior Republic” institutions followed, many issuing tokens and/or paper scrip. Many of the tokens issued by the George Junior Republics had dates of issue, ranging from 1896 to1946. iii How to use this Catalog Revised Cataloguing Approach for Official Prison Scrip This catalog uses a new cataloging approach for prison scrip, identifying the state/province, facility, type of scrip, series identifier, denomination or use, and subtype identifier as follows for governmental authorized facilities: State: Two-letter State/Province Identifier (e.g. AK = Alaska, AB = Alberta) (hyphen) Facility: Three-letter Facility Identifier (e.g. TSF = Tucker State Farm) (hyphen) Type of Scrip: One letter: B=Coupon Book/Card with detachable coupons, C=Coupon from a book/card, K=Ticket sold or distributed individually (e.g. from a roll of tickets), P=Punch Card, T=Token, N=Note, R=Receipt Series: One letter to identify a group of a similar type of scrip (A through Z) (hyphen) Denomination/Use: Three Characters: Denomination: 001 = one cent, 100 = $1, $10 = $10; or Use: LAU = Laundry; SHW = Show; MLK = Milk; COK = Coke; COF = Coffee; GEN = Generic; HCT = Haircut/Barber; etc. Variety: One lower case letter to identify die/color/other variations within a type. While this approach may seem cumbersome at first, I believe it provides the necessary flexibility to properly catalog current and future prison money types. Some examples: 1. Zara’s Catalog Numbers AR-50 to AR-54 for Arkansas’ Tucker State Farm have become: AR-TSF-TA-005, AR-TSF-TA-010, AR-TSF-TA-025, AR-TSF-TA-050, AR-TSF-TA-100. 2. Zara’s Allegheny County Jail in Pennsylvania Scrip tickets PA-1 to PA-7 have become: PA-ALL-CA-001, PA-ALL-CA-002, PA-ALL-CA-005, PA-ALL-CA-010, PA-ALL-CA-025, PA-ALL-CA-050, PA-ALL-CA-100, and the books containing these tickets, which are not identified in Zara have become: PA-ALL-BA-500, PA-ALL-BA-$10, PA-ALL-BA-$15, PA-ALL-BA-$20. 3. Zara’s New Hampshire punch card NH-1 has become NH-STP-PA-050. 4. Zara’s New York NY-20 and NY-21 have become NY-SNG-TA-025a and NY-SNG-TA-025b Cataloguing Approach for Private Youth Facilities The only difference between the cataloging of Official Facility and Private Youth Facility scrip is that the three-letter facility identifier precedes the two-character state ID for Private Youth Facilities and they are listed alphabetically by facility rather than state. Pricing The initial release of this catalog includes no pricing information. Once we have published, we will attempt to provide some pricing guidance, probably in a range, similar to that used by Zara and others. Until then, many of these pieces are offered on eBay, and recent pricing history can be viewed there. Request for Help Our catalog is built on the shoulders of those who have gone before. We have used Zara’s book, eBay listings, tokencatalog.com, the Prison Tokens and Collectables Facebook page and our own collections to compile this listing. But there are many items for which we have no image and we are sure that there are many others that we are not even aware of. Also, any such listings are bound to have errors. Since this is an electronic catalog, with your help, we will be able to update it periodically if you send your information to [email protected]. iv Table of Contents PRISON TOKENS, COUPONS & SCRIP OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA ........................................................ I ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .........................................................................................................................................................I FORWARD ....................................................................................................................................................................... II HOW TO USE THIS CATALOG .............................................................................................................................................. III UNITED STATES PRISON MONEY ....................................................................................................................... 1 ALABAMA ................................................................................................................................................................... 2 ALASKA ....................................................................................................................................................................... 5 ARIZONA ..................................................................................................................................................................... 8 ARKANSAS ................................................................................................................................................................ 12 CALIFORNIA .............................................................................................................................................................. 23 COLORADO ............................................................................................................................................................... 41 CONNECTICUT .......................................................................................................................................................... 51 DELAWARE ............................................................................................................................................................... 53 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ........................................................................................................................................... 55 FLORIDA .................................................................................................................................................................... 59 GEORGIA ................................................................................................................................................................... 63 HAWAII ..................................................................................................................................................................... 64 IDAHO ....................................................................................................................................................................... 65 ILLINOIS .................................................................................................................................................................... 68 INDIANA ................................................................................................................................................................... 74 IOWA ........................................................................................................................................................................ 75 KANSAS ..................................................................................................................................................................... 83 KENTUCKY ................................................................................................................................................................ 86 LOUISIANA ................................................................................................................................................................ 94 MAINE ...................................................................................................................................................................... 99 MARYLAND ............................................................................................................................................................. 105 MASSACHUSETTS ................................................................................................................................................... 106 MICHIGAN .............................................................................................................................................................. 109 MINNESOTA ........................................................................................................................................................... 145 MISSISSIPPI ............................................................................................................................................................. 149 MISSOURI ............................................................................................................................................................... 150 MONTANA .............................................................................................................................................................. 162 NEBRASKA .............................................................................................................................................................. 164 NEVADA .................................................................................................................................................................. 175 NEW HAMPSHIRE ................................................................................................................................................... 187 NEW JERSEY ............................................................................................................................................................ 190 NEW MEXICO .......................................................................................................................................................... 191 NEW YORK .............................................................................................................................................................. 194 NORTH CAROLINA .................................................................................................................................................. 202 NORTH DAKOTA ..................................................................................................................................................... 206 OHIO ....................................................................................................................................................................... 207 OKLAHOMA ............................................................................................................................................................ 213 OREGON ................................................................................................................................................................. 217 PENNSYLVANIA ....................................................................................................................................................... 219 RHODE ISLAND ....................................................................................................................................................... 230 SOUTH CAROLINA ................................................................................................................................................... 231 SOUTH DAKOTA ...................................................................................................................................................... 236 TENNESSEE ............................................................................................................................................................. 240 TEXAS ...................................................................................................................................................................... 245 v UTAH ...................................................................................................................................................................... 266 VERMONT ............................................................................................................................................................... 271 VIRGINIA ................................................................................................................................................................. 276 WASHINGTON ........................................................................................................................................................ 283 WEST VIRGINIA ....................................................................................................................................................... 285 WISCONSIN............................................................................................................................................................. 287 WYOMING .............................................................................................................................................................. 294 CANADIAN PRISON MONEY .......................................................................................................................... 298 ALBERTA ................................................................................................................................................................. 299 MANITOBA ............................................................................................................................................................. 323 NEW BRUNSWICK ................................................................................................................................................... 326 PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND........................................................................................................................................ 333 SASKATCHEWAN .................................................................................................................................................... 335 PRIVATE YOUTH INSTITUTIONS ..................................................................................................................... 337 BOYS TOWN ............................................................................................................................................................... 338 CALIFORNIA GEORGE JUNIOR REPUBLIC ........................................................................................................................... 341 CHILDREN’S REPUBLIC .................................................................................................................................................. 343 CHILDREN’S VILLAGE SEYBERT INSTITUTION ...................................................................................................................... 344 COLORADO GEORGE JUNIOR REPUBLIC............................................................................................................................ 345 CONNECTICUT GEORGE JUNIOR REPUBLIC ........................................................................................................................ 345 FORD REPUBLIC .......................................................................................................................................................... 347 GEORGE JUNIOR REPUBLIC (NY) .................................................................................................................................... 349 GEORGE JUNIOR REPUBLIC (PA) .................................................................................................................................... 364 HANNA BOYS’ CENTER ................................................................................................................................................. 365 JOURNAL JUNIOR REPUBLIC ........................................................................................................................................... 368 NATIONAL JUNIOR REPUBLIC ......................................................................................................................................... 369 WILLIAM T. CARTER JUNIOR REPUBLIC ............................................................................................................................ 371 MISCELLANEOUS .......................................................................................................................................... 372 UNIDENTIFIED ........................................................................................................................................................ 373 MULTI-USE GENERICS ............................................................................................................................................. 375 MAVERICK TOKEN IDENTIFIER ................................................................................................................................ 376 1 United States Prison Money 2 ALABAMA ATMORE PRISON FARM- ATMORE (Escambia County) ATMORE PRISON FARM / 1 / CENT (denomination within a circle of 22 incuse dots) OBV / — ALA. — (black print) (blank except for a circle of 22 incuse dots) REV AL-ART-TA-001 Zara # AL-1 Note: Inscriptions were printed on the token rather than being incuse. The print wore off quickly and many have little or no print left. Plastic- red 40mm Round ATMORE PRISON FARM / 5 / CENTS (denomination within a circle of 22 incuse OBV dots) / — ALA. — (black print) (blank except for a circle of 22 incuse dots) REV AL-ART-TA-005 Zara # AL-2 Note: Inscriptions were printed on the token rather than being incuse. The print wore off quickly and many have little or no print left. Plastic- blue 40mm Round ATMORE PRISON FARM / 50 / CENTS (denomination within a circle of 22 incuse OBV dots / — ALA. — (black print) (blank except for a circle of 22 incuse dots) REV AL-ART-TA-050 Zara # AL-3 Note: Inscriptions were printed on the token rather than being incuse. The print wore off quickly and many have little or no print left. Plastic- yellow 40mm Round BOARD OF CORRECTIONS- MONTGOMERY (Montgomery County) (Board of Corrections?) / 1 / CENT (denomination within a circle of 22 incuse dots) OBV (black print) (blank except for a circle of 22 incuse dots) REV AL-BOC-TA-001 Zara # AL-10 Note: Inscriptions were printed on the token rather than being incuse. The print wore off quickly and many have little or no print left. Plastic- red 40mm Round (Board of Corrections?) / 5¢ (denomination within a circle of 22 incuse dots) (white OBV print) (Alabama Great Seal) (within a circle of 22 incuse dots) (white print) REV AL-BOC-TA-005 Zara # AL-11 Note: Inscriptions were printed on the token rather than being incuse. The print wore off quickly and many have little or no print left. Plastic- blue 40mm Round 3 BOARD OF CORRECTIONS / 50 / CENTS (denomination within a circle of 22 OBV incuse dots) / — ALA. — (black print) (blank except for a circle of 22 incuse dots) REV AL-BOC-TA-050 Zara # AL-12 Note: Inscriptions were printed on the token rather than being incuse. The print wore off quickly and many have little or no print left. Plastic- yellow 40mm Round STATE OF ALABAMA / BOARD / OF / CORRECTIONS OBV GOOD FOR / 5¢ / IN TRADE REV AL-BOC-TB-005 Zara # AL-30 Note: Brass 25mm Round STATE OF ALABAMA / BOARD / OF / CORRECTIONS OBV GOOD FOR / 50¢ / IN TRADE REV AL-BOC-TB-050 Zara # AL-31 Note: Scan courtesy of token catalog: mntokenman Brass 31mm Round DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS AND INSTITUTIONS- MONTGOMERY (Montgomery County) DEPT. OF CORRECTIONS & INSTITUTIONS / 1 / CENT (denomination within a OBV circle of 22 incuse dots?) (black print?) (state seal) (within a circle of 22 incuse dots?) (black print?) REV AL-DCI-TA-001 Zara # AL-21 Note: No sample has been seen by the authors and so assumptions have been made Plastic- red 40mm Round DEPT. OF CORRECTIONS & INSTITUTIONS / 5 / CENTS (denomination within a OBV circle of 22 incuse dots?) (black print?) (state seal) (within a circle of 22 incuse dots?) (black print?) REV AL-DCI-TA-005 Zara # AL-22 Note: No sample has been seen by the authors and so assumptions have been made Plastic- blue 40mm Round