If not for the price of a carton of milk being 1.5 cents in my elementary school in the early 1960's, I'd likely never heard of these. To buy a carton of milk at my elementary school in Missouri, you'd give them two cents, and they'd put a green plastic 5 mill Missouri Sales tax coin in some kind of reserve for you for the next purchase. I just saw the coins because only the people who brought their lunch purchased milk separately. I don't think they actually gave the tokens as change, but maybe they did to the few kids who only bought milk.

Wasn't a lot of reason to bring lunch, since the cafeteria served cooked from scratch meals for cheap, probably 25 cents or less.

These state sales tax coins were issued by 11 states for small purchases during the depression. Kansas was the first to drop their use, and Missouri the last in 1961.

Any experience with using these less than cent coins, or interesting school lunch stories?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_tax_token

No experience with these tokens. They were discontinued prior to my existence.

I had forgotten about the elementary school cafeteria. Things didn’t change a lot from when you were in school to when I was. Early 1980’s and milk was 5 cents. Chocolate milk was a dime. The lunches were fifty cents, and the food was really good.
I remember the lunch cards that parents would buy. Ten bucks would get you a whole month of lunches. It was about 2”x3” and slid into the top of the cash register. It would take a chunk out of the edge of the card decrementing that days meal. Similar to the old cards in library books when you would check out.

We had this one lunch lady that would make peach cobbler. While she used canned peaches, it was one of the best cobblers I ever remember eating. When word got out that she made cobbler, the lunch line would double. Kids who had sack lunches would pay their fifty cents and only get the cobbler.

Thank you for bringing back such a cool memory.

Yes, I had a few left somewhere, maybe Mom has them. We called them "mills." We actually got them as change from milk in MO back in the day.

quote:

Originally posted by Fredward:
Yes, I had a few left somewhere, maybe Mom has them. We called them "mills." We actually got them as change from milk in MO back in the day.

"mills" comes from a thousand parts to a dollar, so is a tenth of a cent. A half cent coin is a 5 mill coin. Tenth of a cent coins in Missouri were call "milk cap" tokens, and were made of paper.

I was in elementary school in KCMO 1958->1965 and remember the plastic tax tokens. A little bigger than a nickel I think?

I don't remember that but I do remember in the early 70's when I was a paperboy there was a milk machine on my route that dispensed quarts of milk like a pop machine. A quart of milk was a quarter then.

I remember the tokens. I might even have a few in an old bank. They were issued and used in states that had small percentage sales taxes and didn't round up.

flashguy

Brings back lunchroom memories for me. I was in elementary school in the 60's. Milk was $0.03. Chocolate milk was $0.05.

When I first bought the chocolate milk, it was a revelation. First, it was delicious. Second, I realized that my Mom had pulled the wool over the my eyes and those of my siblings. She had been giving us Tiger's Milk (Molasses and milk) and calling it chocolate milk. Not the same thing at all.

I well remember the mills. Some were paper, and some were metal. I may still have a few of them. I worked in the school cafeteria at noon, so my meal was free.....i.e. I earned the equivalent of $0.25.