1935 - One Mill New Mexico Emergency School Tax Token.

A mill is 1/10 of a cent. When sales taxes were first implemented, you usually had fractional values for prices so these tokens were issued to create change for those situations. Only about 10 or 11 states issued these tokens and many of them are made with inexpensive materials- aluminum, zinc, plastic, etc. You might find this site interesting and it should give you some more specific info for New Mexico- http://www.taxtoken.org/

Frustrating, yes, especially for people who travelled interstate a lot. New Mexico tax tokens wouldn't have been accepted in Louisiana, nor vice versa.

The people most upset were the lawyers for the US Treasury, who tried to prove the tokens were in fact coinage, issued by authority of the states - something a US state is prohibited from doing.