Funny how things on Ebay look larger than when they arrive in the mail. I bought this “Free Parking” token (on right) the other day as a gag. The next time a friend gets nabbed for a high-priced downtown parking ticket, I was going to hand over this coin as a consolation prize. It’s the size of a copper penny and, on reflection, the joke might go down like a screen door on a submarine.
Curious about the history of locally-minted coins, I called my neighbor, Portsmouth-born CPA Kevin Lafond. He’s the world’s expert on “New Hampshire Merchant Scrip.” That’s also the title of Kevin’s four-pound, 471-page, self-published, full-color book on the topic. When I wrote about Kevin’s new book years ago, we were focused on paper scrip.
What is scrip? In tough economic times when coins were scarce, local merchants issued their own “scrip notes.” This privately-printed currency appeared in the colonial era as early as 1734. It reappeared throughout the Civil War, during the Financial Panic of 1873, and in the Great Depression of the 20th century. Bursts of scrip notes were issued by stores, bars, restaurants, hotels, even chambers of commerce, then quickly disappeared. But there were also metal tokens used by merchants to stimulate sales.
“Your parking token,” Kevin Lafond says, “was produced, I believe, by the Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce in conjunction with the city. Local merchants would purchase the tokens and give them to customers upon a purchase. The tokens could then be used in the local parking meters. Eventually, the city would redeem them with the Chamber. Two different types were used. The first were aluminum issued in the 1960s and the second were brass and issued in the early 1970s.”
Cool. And the history behind this counterfeit penny stretches back to the paper scrip era. Here’s Kevin again:
“Some, such as the ‘hard times’ tokens from the 1830s, were actually issued as a money substitute. Others were issued during financially difficult times such as the 1890s, and used like a modern day coupon.”
This week’s photo shows a Portsmouth “Hard Times” token from 1837 at left. It was issued for discounts from Nathaniel March, bookseller & stationer, and at William Simes shop downtown, a popular purveyor of teas, wines and groceries.
“Another example of this would be William H. Fay’s token that was good for 50 cents off from a purchase of $10 or more,” Kevin says. “There was even a token issued by Ida Gulick for use by the Spanish prisoners at Camp Long, now the site of the abandoned Naval Prison in Kittery, for purchases at the post exchange.”
“Finally,” Kevin told me, “there were tokens issued as a calling card or business card, which included advertising. A local example is a token issued by William P. Young, a numismatist. He was a clerk for the Portsmouth Electric Railway and later at the Portsmouth Navy Yard. He was also a coin collector and dealer. He used his token to advertise what he was looking to acquire.”
The value of tokens, much like rare coins, depends on a range of factors including condition, rarity, and the number of collectors. The parking tokens, which are readily available on eBay sell for a few dollars, whereas the Ida Gulick tokens are worth about $100. In 2023, to honor the city’s 400th anniversary, Kevin Lafond issued his own commemorative tokens in gold, silver, and bronze.
For much more on this topic look for “New Hampshire’s Merchant Scrip” (2018) by Kevin G. Lafond, available from the author at P.O. Box 637, Portsmouth, N.H. 03802. Copyright 2021 by J. Dennis Robinson, updated 2025, all rights reserved.
Fourth of July Fun Facts