An American 1-mill, etc.

[villa66]

The American 1/1000 of a dollar, spelled variously as the "mille," "mill," or "mil."

The denomination was created by The Mint Act of 1792, Section 20: "And be it further enacted, That the money of account of the United States shall be expressed in dollars or units, dismes or tenths, cents or hundredths, and milles or thousandths, a disme being a tenth part of a dollar, a cent the hundredth part of a dollar, a mille the thousandth part of a dollar, and that all accounts in public offices and all proceedings in the courts of the United States shall be kept and had in conformity to this regulation."

The "mill" has remained uncoined in the Federal context except for a token coinage struck after WWI in anticipation of a 1% national sales tax to retire war debt. The levy was not enacted and the entire supply of little bronze tokens—dated 1921—was said to have been destroyed. As always, however, rumors persist that some few survived.

During the difficulties of the Great Depression of the 1930s, several states enacted sales taxes (or similar levies) of their own. The proper collection of these often tiny sums required a coin or token of smaller value than the 1-cent piece, which had been the smallest denomination coined by the U.S. since 1858.

The first of these state sales tax tokens appeared in Washington (state) in 1935, and it promptly ran into the federal Constitution (of 1787) and its Article I, Section 10: "No State shall...coin Money;" practicality soon won out, however, and the issue of the tokens was allowed to proceed—with proper precautions taken, however, to prevent the confusion of the various state tax tokens with federal coinage.

Below, chosen more or less at random, are Missouri's first (1935-36) and second (1936-37) 1-mill types, with the earlier type at left...

[villa66]

The prime reason for the design change can perhaps be thumbnailed by the following piece: 

v.

[chrisild]

Ah, the joys of not rounding up and down. But at least the results are nice.   Except ... I don't quite understand that LFB text. Jail? Love? Anything in between?

Christian

[villa66]

Additional random mills:

[villa66]

Of particular interest in the above two photos, I think, are the small round and square tokens at upper right. These are sales tax tokens from Illinois, and denominated as they are at 1.5-mills, their face value reaches down into the ten-thousandths of a dollar. Note also the impact of the national government on these particular state tokens. Illinois' round 1.5-mill token of 1935 was thought by the Feds to be too similar to the dime, and so they asked for a change in design. The result was the pictured square token of 1935-36.

v.

[malj1]

We have another two threads on these tax tokens; US sales tax tokens and Washington Sales Tax Token

[villa66]

There's quite a bit of extra baggage in the one thread, but thanks for the addition.

v.

[villa66]

One of the items of particular interest in the state sales tax series, the New Mexico 5-mill error. At least it's widely known as an error; looking at the quality of the die-cutting, it sometimes looks to me like "unofficial" work. Note that while the New Mexico 1-mill, of aluminum, was good for the tax on a five-cent purchase--and recites that fact--this 5-mill error token is not a mule that used the reverse die of its 1-mill sibling.

Below, at left, the New Mexico 5-mill of 1935-42, good for the tax on a twenty-five-cent purchase. At right, the error--fun to look for in a junkbox.

v.

[malj1]

As you say --fun to look for in a junkbox, bit hard to spot with a cursory look though even when in the know.

BTW I think there is another thread here somewhere with a large collection of tax tokens but could not find it yesterday.