Pismo Beach, California, 50 Cents, 1933 (clamshell)
date: label: date made
content: 1933
name: label: maker
content: Restwell Cabins
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: One (1) 50 cent shell, Restwell Cabins
label: Description (Brief)
content: California, United States, 1933
label: Description (Brief)
content: Obverse Image: N/A
label: Description (Brief)
content: Obverse Text: GOOD FOR 50C ON DEMAND AT THE RESTWELL CABINS / 3-8-33/ SCRIP / PISMO BEACH CALI / SIGN OTHER SIDE / IN GOD WE TRUST/ No. 5A
label: Description (Brief)
content: Reverse Image: N/A
label: Description (Brief)
content: Reverse Text: SIGN HERE
label: Description
content: When the Great Depression and resulting banking crisis hit their community, the residents of the California coastal town of Pismo Beach picked an unusual but logical medium of exchange. The pismo is a species of clam with a very thick shell, then found in large numbers along the California coast and prized as a food.
label: Description
content: A town named after clams suggests an adequate supply of their shells. Perhaps with tongue in cheek, the merchants and officials of Pismo Beach (who were often the same people) decided to make the best of a bad situation, and to make the humble pismo shell into an object of trade. This they did. The Chamber of Commerce and no fewer than eleven merchants issued clamshell scrip. Restwell Cabins issued "notes" in three denominations: twenty-five cents, fifty cents, and one dollar.
label: Description
content: The larger the amount, the larger the shell. The issue may have been partly intended as a spoof, or for sale to tourists, in the manner of German notgeld around 1920. Redemption would never be a problem because collectors would wish to keep such pieces in their cabinets or trade them with their friends. But it was also intended partly as a real, if unique, circulating medium. The Restwell Cabins issue bore the motto, "IN GOD WE TRUST."
label: Description
content: Each piece was numbered, and each piece was signed on the front and on the back. As with the stamp notes of the Midwest, it was necessary to sign each clamshell on the back in order to keep it in circulation. No formal requirements may have existed, but informal pressure certainly would have endorsed the practice.
label: Description
content: This specimen is dated March 8, 1933. This was in the middle of Roosevelt's national banking holiday, and it is exactly the time when we might expect to see people take money into their own hands.
place: label: place made
content: United States: California, Pismo Beach
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: National Numismatic Collection
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content: Coins
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content: Numismatics
label: See more items in
content: American Enterprise
label: See more items in
content: Coins, Currency and Medals
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content: Legendary Coins
label: Exhibition
content: American Enterprise
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Zoomable Image and Details
label: Related Publication
content: Sewer, Andy; Allison, David; Liebhold, Peter; Davis, Nancy; Franz, Kathleen G.. American Enterprise: A History of Business in America
label: Related Publication
content: Glossary of Coins and Currency Terms
label: Related Web Publication
content: http://americanhistory.si.edu/coins/glossary.cfm
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Chase Manhattan
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1979.1263.00472
label: accession number
content: 1979.1263
label: catalog number
content: 79.112.OC102F
label: collector/donor number
content: OC102F
objectType: label: Object Name
content: alternative currency
label: Other Terms
content: North America; California, Pismo Beach
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: shell, clam (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: ink (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: white/gray (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: black (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: marked with ink (overall production method/technique)
label: Measurements
content: average spatial: 8.6 cm x 10.9 cm x 2.4 cm; 3 3/8 in x 4 5/16 in x 15/16 in