Company scrip

With this economic monopoly, the employer could place large markups on goods, making workers dependent on the company, thus enforcing employee "loyalty".

[8] There were additionally "compressed fibre" coins produced during World War II in an effort to conserve metals for wartime production in direct defiance of the law passed in 1938.

[3] In Wisconsin, for example, forest-products and lumber companies were specifically exempted from the state law requiring employers to pay workers' wages in cash.

According to the Wisconsin Historical Society, such an option may have appealed to new settlers in the region, who worked in the lumber camps in winter to earn enough money to establish a farm.

[14] There was no uniform design, but each coin generally identified the location of the coal company town and predominantly featured the words "non-transferrable" to communicate to recipients it could not be transferred for U.S.

[12] Coal scrip was deemed unconstitutional if non-transferable in the early twentieth century, but continued to exist in Kentucky and West Virginia until officially outlawed by Congress in 1967.

Such currencies were issued "by principalities, German colonial governments, cities, large corporations, small businesses, prisoner-of-war camps, and in some cases, individuals.

While microtransactions are a staple of the mobile app market, they are also seen on PC software such as Valve's Steam digital distribution platform, as well as console gaming, where the consumer cannot generally convert the purchases back into real money.

Scrip used by Olga Coal Company, Coalwood, West Virginia
Yawkey-Bissell Lumber Company Scrip for White Lake, Wisconsin
Various forms of coal scrip
$1 scrip coin from Peerless Coal & Coke Co., Vivian, West Virginia
Company scrip from Badische Anilin- und Soda-Fabrik , 2 Pfennig Gutschein, ca. 1918