1 Cent - M & L Meat Co. Chicago, Illinois

M & L Meat Co. was one of hundreds of Chicago meatpacking-district businesses that issued small-denomination paper scrip during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when coin shortages or simple payroll logistics made fractional currency practical for in-house use. These trade tokens and scrip notes were typically redeemable only at the issuing company's store or commissary — a system that kept workers' wages circulating back to the employer. Illinois scrip of this type occupied a legal grey area for decades before stricter labor regulations curtailed the practice.