Military Artifacts: World War II OPA Ration Token – Blue

Monday, October 17, 2011

World War II OPA Ration Token – Blue – Letters ‘U U’

World War II OPA Ration Token – Blue – Letters 'U U’

A Short History of the O.P.A. Token

After Pearl Harbor and the entry of the United States into World War II, a system of rationing was started covering almost every item in daily use including food, gasoline, fuel oil, etc. Stamps were issued to equal amounts such as 1 stamp equaled 4 gallons of gasoline. When food was added to the list, there were times when the amount of food could not be supplied in even amounts to agree with the food stamps. In 1944 the O.P.A. issued tokens for use in making change in consumer sales. All tokens were 1 point each, red for meats, and blue for processed foods. They were first issued February 27, 1944 and were in use for about a year. The Osborne Register Co. of Cincinnati Ohio was the prime contractor in making these tokens. There were 1,750,000,000 red tokens issued in 30 known combinations of letters, and 1,000,000,000 blue tokens in 24 known letter combinations. Large quantities of tokens are still available being saved as mementos of the war, along with many ration books and present an interesting field in trying to find a complete set of all the combinations of letters.

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