Posted 07/13/2007 7:01 pm
One of the many CANNING tokens (as well as PICKER tokens). When paid for piece-work, rather than pay cash, the company would pay the worker with tokens. If the price of the work changed, they didn't have to issue new tokens, only revalue the payment at the end of the day (or week, or whatever). Pick a case of strawberries in the field, get one token, at the end of the day, redeem them for cash. This specific one is neat in that it says "Piece work", spelling out how it is used. It also kept the books simpler, so if you got $.32 for a case of strawberries, they didn't have to have the cash on hand and count out the change, just give the worker a token. It also cut down on cash thefts, and there easily could be a requirement the worker had to redeem them from a different person than who gave them out. There is a book on Strawberry Picker tokens of Missouri (out of print), and the MARYLAND TRADE TOKEN book lists lots of picker tokens, but they were issued all over.
