Hello everyone! As some of you know I'm a serious collector of military trade tokens. This collecting passion also extends to a lesser degree, military script. These were essentially paper coupons detached from books that were redeemable in the clubs. Last weekend I photographed my collection. My earliest example is the below book which can be dated to the WWI era. Sadly, I did not take any photos and only have one scan available but the book is complete and the paper looks good. The book is dateable because of the names of the government officals on the back - the Secretary of War. Here are some photos of book cover scans for Cannon AFB and Reese AFB: (Note the expiration date on the cover.) One from Reese AFB: Inside the books were detachable coupons. I've been fortunate enough to add coupons as companion pieces to a few of my tokens, see below: Ladd AFB, Alaska Alaska, Ladd Air Force Base; nickle 16mm Cunningham Vol 1, p. 12, AK430; Atwood 300E (obsolete between 1951 - 1954) More to follow...
Let's get through Texas first. Laughlin AFB: Texas, Laughlin AFB; aluminum, 35mm Cunningham Vol 1, p. 283, TX1910d
Randolph AFB: Texas, Randolph AFB; brass, 22mm Cunningham Vol 1, p. 287, TX2110a brass, 26mm, TX2110b brass, 28mm, TX2110c brass, 32mm, TX2110d I also own the $1 denomination, but I don't have a picture for some reason.
More tokens from Randolph AFB: aluminum, 22mm, TX2110f aluminum, 26mm, TX2110g aluminum, 28mm, TX2110h aluminum, 32mm, TX2110i aluminum, 35mm, TX2110j
I got a little carried away there with the tokens... Here are the remaining coupons with only one token! Interesting to note it says "Air Base" which raises the question on when it was in use. aluminum, 35mm, FL380c aluminum, 34mm, LA80c aluminum, 28mm, ME120e brass, 22mm, NC70l (unlisted variety in this shape) aluminum, 32mm, NC250b (Cunningham has a "." after the "1", possible variety or error)
aluminum, 32mm, NM70b (I have 9 tokens from Cannon, so I'll spare you...) Finally an overseas! Notice the reverse expiration date! brass, 28mm, GB90c Thanks for looking, this is my entire collection of script coupons. Please feel free to post anything relevant.
Oh a couple notes. I don't know what the correct term is for these coupons, I've seen them called as chits. When you see them with holes, that means they were "spent" or redeemed. I can't remember where I read about them but I think it was in Ray Bows "Vietnam Military Lore 1959 - 1973...Another Way to Remember".
That was true when I was there 2004-2009! Here's some more: Brass, 32mm, NM70a Brass, 32mm, NM80a Aluminum, 32mm, NM80b Aluminum, 20mm, NM90a Aluminum, 24mm, NM90b Aluminum, 27mm, NM90c Aluminum, 30mm, NM90d A few challenge coins from my time there:
