1 Cent - Orsi and Son Spokane, Washington

Orsi & Son was a Spokane grocery and import business that issued its own fractional scrip during the small-change shortages that periodically plagued the Pacific Northwest in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Private merchant scrip of this kind was technically illegal under federal law but widely tolerated at the local level, particularly in cities like Spokane that were growing faster than coin supply could follow.

At 143 x 70 mm, this is notably large for a one-cent denomination — most fractional merchant notes ran considerably smaller. Whether that reflects a local printer's stock sheet size or a deliberate design choice to reduce loss is unknown.