Coal Scrip

Coal scrip is kind of like pretend money that was used a long time ago in parts of America where people were mining for coal. When a coal mine was owned by a company, the workers who worked there would sometimes be paid in scrip instead of real money that they could use to buy things like food and clothes.

The reason for this was because the coal company wanted to make sure that the workers only shopped at the company store, which was owned by the same people who owned the mine. By using coal scrip, the company was able to control where the workers were spending their money.

The coal scrip itself usually looked like little metal coins or tokens, and they would have the name of the company that issued them and an amount printed on them. The workers would use them to buy things at the company store just like they would use real money.

But there was a big problem with coal scrip - the workers were often paid much less than they deserved. The company would charge really high prices at the store and the workers would have to spend all of their scrip there, leaving them with very little extra money to spend on anything else.

Eventually, laws were passed to prevent companies from using coal scrip and to ensure that workers were paid fair wages. But the history of coal scrip is an important reminder of how some people were taken advantage of in the past, and how important it is to make sure that workers today are treated fairly and paid what they deserve.