Townsend Test Check, Brewster, WA 1937
date: label: date made
content: 1937
notes: label: Description
content: This one dollar check from the First National Bank of Brewster, Washington, was paid to the order of “Prosperity” by Dorwin D. Holland, treasurer of Brewster’s Townsend Test Fund, on January 25, 1937. David Silva Sampson was chosen by Brewster’s Townsend Club to spend 200 dollars in checks to test Townsend’s Pension Plan. The check was spent like a dollar note; each merchant would pay a two cent tax to go toward the pension’s kitty. Each time the note was spent, the note was signed on the back by the seller. This note passed through twelve hands before stopping with Nettie Whitinger on February 8, 1937. While Townsend’s plan was never adopted, other tests were funded in Chelan, Washington, and Bergenfield, New Jersey. The tests were not favorable toward Townsend’s plan, as local news reports blamed souvenir seekers for taking the checks out of circulation, ending that note’s chance to be used and taxed.
label: Description
content: The United States was in the middle of the Great Depression in the 1930s and many people saw a need for old-age pension plans to help the working elderly retire comfortably, which would then open up new jobs for younger workers. Francis Townsend, a Californian physician, proposed a plan that gave 200 dollars a month to every citizen sixty years and older, believing that would stimulate the economy and jolt America out of the Depression. Under the Townsend Plan, the pensioner must be retired and have a crime-free past in order to receive the money, which must be spent locally during the month it was issued. The pension would be funded by a 2% tax paid by the seller in transactions involving the pension money. While the plan could never fund its promised output, well-organized seniors exerted mounting political pressure for some sort of economic security, prompting President Franklin D. Roosevelt to urge the passing of the Social Security Act in 1935.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place issued
content: United States: Washington, Brewster
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: National Numismatic Collection
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content: American Enterprise
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content: Coins, Currency and Medals
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1979.1263.00002
label: accession number
content: 1979.1263
label: catalog number
content: 1979.1263.00002
label: serial number
content: H41
objectType: label: Object Name
content: check
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 7.1 cm x 17.2 cm x .01 cm; 2 25/32 in x 6 25/32 in x in