We attended a (late) New Years gathering yesterday afternoon and the subject of World War II came up. Someone was asking people\u2019s age and what, if anything, they remembered about WWII. I don\u2019t remember much, but I do remember rationing and I remember where I was when the end of the war announcement came over the radio.
\nOne thing I seem to remember than no one else present did was the use of mills \u2014 I\u2019m not sure this was a World War II thing, but I associate it with the war and don\u2019t remember them being used much after the war ended.
\nI probably remember them because they were made like a coin, but not nearly as thick and they had a hole in the middle. They were great for threading the string you used to spin your top with \u2014 the mill kept the string from slipping through your fingers. Of course you could just tie a loop in the end of the string and slip it over your finger, but this technique was better suited to yo-yo\u2019s than tops \u2014 for a top, the mill was much cooler.<\/p>\n
I think the reason I remember mills and others don\u2019t has to do with where I grew up. Mills were really tax tokens and only some states issued them \u2014 Oklahoma being one of the states. The idea of tokens came as a result of the sales tax. When the sales tax practice began, it resulted in the final price of items often being fractions of a cent. Let\u2019s say you purchased an item for $1.25 and the sales tax was 3% \u2014 the cost of the item would be $1.2875 ($1.28 and 3\/4 cents.) The thinking back in the 1930s and 40s was that if the total was rounded up to $1.29, it would result in an \u201cunfair\u201d profit of 1\/4 cent to the seller, but if it was rounded down to $1.28, it would be unfair to the seller by reducing the profit by 3\/4 cent.
\nSo \u2014 the solution was to provide tokens in fractions of a cent (\u201cmills\u201d) 1 mill = 1\/1000 of a dollar or 1\/10 of a cent. Using the $1.25, 3% tax example, the customer would pay $1.29 and receive 2.5 mills in tax tokens as change. If the next purchase came to, say, $5.4325, the customer could pay $5.43 plus the 2.5 mills in tax tokens. If this didn\u2019t make life complicated enough, different states issued different tax tokens. Finally, people decided just not to worry about fractions of a cent.
\nAs a note, my extensive research revealed that the last tax tokens were not discontinued until 1961. I wasn\u2019t able to determine which state was the last to discontinue them\u2026..<\/p>\n
The \u201ccoin-like\u201d tokens were made of aluminum, copper, zinc, brass, plastic (in several colors) cardboard and paper. (The ones I remember were aluminum.) The most common denominations were 1 and 5 mills, but other denominations were \u201ccoined\u201d by some of the states.<\/p>\n
One of the dictionary definitions of token is, \u201cround piece of metal or plastic that is used instead of money in some machines \u2014 an object that looks like a coin and is used in place of a coin.\u201d Today, we often use the term token to describe a minority included in a group to prove they\u2019re culturally diverse. There\u2019s a guy on South Park named Token because he\u2019s the \u201ctoken black guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
But again, I\u2019m getting off track. Back to mills \u2014 it seems like taxes have always complicated things. But I kind of wish tokens would come back \u2014 you can\u2019t use a form 1040 on the end of your top string.
\n\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n
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We attended a (late) New Years gathering yesterday afternoon and the subject of World War II came up. Someone was asking people\u2019s age and what, if anything, they remembered about WWII. I don\u2019t remember much, but I do remember rationing … Continue reading