10 Cents USARJ

N.C.O. Open Mess scrip was a parallel currency operating entirely within the non-commissioned officers' club system of U.S. Army installations in occupied and post-treaty Japan. These notes circulated as vouchers redeemable for food, drink, and services within the mess — a closed economic loop designed to prevent dollar-denominated currency from leaking into the Japanese black market, a genuine problem during the occupation years that persisted as a policy concern well into the 1970s.

Punch cancellation on surviving examples indicates redemption or retirement from service use rather than destruction — a practical accounting measure, and the reason most collectible specimens carry the hole.