Token US Utah Sales Tax Emergency Relief Fund 1 and 5 Mills 1933

Don't you just love politics? The 'Emergency Relief Fund' was established in Utah in 1933, during the throws of the Great Depression. The legislation that enacted the sales tax for the Fund was supposed to expire two years later. Somehow, the state of emergency continues to this day, because the sales tax is still going strong.

Back when 1 US cent had value, merchants and their customers needed something smaller than 1 cent to pay sales tax, which often computed to fractions of one cent. The 'tax token' was born, with 10 tokens equal to one cent. The official denominations in Utah were 1 mil1 (round hole) and 5 mills (star hole), where 1 mill equals 1/1000 dollar, or 1/10 cent.

Buckets and buckets of these tokens were produced. They carry essentially no value today:

1 MILL AND 5 MILL TOKENS:
worn: less than $1 US dollar approximate catalog value
average circulated: less than $1
well preserved: less than $1
fully uncirculated: less than $1

The string full of tokens in our secondary picture might sell for $3 or so to a token collector.
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