FREE: Great example of a World War II WASHINGTON TAX TOKEN!

The listing, Great example of a World War II WASHINGTON TAX TOKEN! has ended.

At Auction is a Washington State Tax Token. Aluminum composition. Used, more dirty than worn, uncleaned.

During World War II (1941-1945) Merchants had to pay sales tax to the state on the total amount of sales made by the merchant during each day's sales. You can imagine that if the sales tax rate is 3% and a child buys a 10c piece of candy there is no way to collect the three-tenths of one cent. If you rounded down that meant that the merchant could not collect anything for the tax. If you rounded up the state was gaining 7 tenths of a cent on every 10 cent sale. You can see that if the merchant sold 100 pieces of candy he was loosing 30 cents a day in tax revenues to the state, so the token was born. This allowed the merchant to take 11 cents for the first piece of candy and give change back in mills (tokens). The next time you wanted to buy a 10c candy you could present the merchant with the 10c and a token and complete the transaction. This allowed the merchant to collect the sales tax on each transaction. Tokens came in different colors and compositions to represent different amounts. They were first produced in 1935. Washington State was one of only 12 states to employ this practice. After a few years, both retailers and the public found their use to be too much trouble, and they were discontinued. The diameter of this token is about 7/8", with a hole in the center.

I bought a box of coins from a client years ago that she had gotten from a relative that sailed the oceans aboard merchant ships from the late 1800's to WWII. This is one of the coins he collected.

Great collectible coin! Makes a nice gift too! Let me know if you have any questions.