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CA - Pismo Beach,San Luis Obispo County - 1933 - California Market Clam Shell Good For 25c #1030

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Western Americana Start Price:125.00 USD Estimated At:250.00 - 400.00 USD
CA - Pismo Beach,San Luis Obispo County - 1933 - California Market Clam Shell Good For 25c #1030
Invoicing and lot pick up will NOT be available at the live auction.All items will be shipped or may be picked up at the Reno office the first Monday following

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Large (3" X 5") clamshell hand painted, Good For/25c/on demand at/California Mkt/Pismo Beach Best/No.1030. 3/8/33. Signed twice on obverse and five times on the reverse. Signatures include H. Williams, W.J. Sparrow of Los Angeles Bis Co., Claude Devereaux, C.M. McCoy. P.M. And others. This large, thick clamshell is a beautiful example of this rare form of currency. The Official Black Book Price Guide to United States Paper Money By Marc Hudgeons, Thomas E. Hudgeons valued this piece at $425 in 2008. This shell has two small breaks on one edge that have been repaired with glue.

Smithsonian's History Explorer website shows an image of one of these clam shells, which were made and circulated in the two California's cities of Cresent City and Pismo Beach in 1933, held by the National Museum of American History: The website (http://historyexplorer.si.edu) tells the story of these unusual forms of currency. "When the Depression and resulting banking crisis hit their community, the residents of the coastal town of Pismo Beach, California 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. A town named after the bivalves 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 clam shell into an object of trade. This they did. The Chamber of Commerce and no fewer than eleven merchants issued clamshell scrip. 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.…. (The Clam shells were) intended partly as a real, if unique, circulating medium.…. Each piece was numbered, and each was signed on the front and on the back. This specimens are dated 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." See two other examples under Crescent City in California. - Weber Collection