During the world economic crisis of the 1930s, the United States experienced widespread use of local currency or “scrip”. The most significant form of scrip, both in terms of the longevity and size of the issues, was tax anticipation scrip. This paper surveys the varieties of tax anticipation scrip issued in the USA during this period, and ventures some interpretation of its significance and applicability to non-crisis circumstances. Based neither upon the good will and voluntarism of its users, nor upon the power of the state to enforce legal tender, tax anticipation scrip represents an intermediate form of monetary practice that can be calibrated to the structure and functions of the local governments that issue it.

After outlining the general experience with depression-era scrip, this paper describes the nature and origins of tax anticipation scrip as a particular form of local currency. It also surveys specific arrangements in different counties and cities that affected the successful circulation of such scrip. While perhaps relevant only to the American historical experience, the jurisprudence concerning non-national currency is assessed insofar as it puts into legal context scrip issued during the 1930s.

Finally, the concept of tax-based monetary issues is not unknown in monetary theory, and this paper concludes by attempting to relate the significance of the American experience of the 1930s to neo-chartalist interpretations of the origins and functions of money.