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Lot 618 - 1973 Original Uncut Sheet of 16 Gasoline Ration Coupons

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:350.00 USD Estimated At:700.00 - 800.00 USD
Lot 618 - 1973 Original Uncut Sheet of 16 Gasoline Ration Coupons
1973 Original Uncut Sheet of 16 Gasoline Ration Coupons. 1973 United States One Unit Gasoline Ration Coupons. Original Uncut Sheet of 16 Coupons. Gem Crisp Uncirculated. As of 1987, an undisclosed number of what had been up till then only rumored ration coupons hit the market. In a June 16, 1987 front-page article, Numismatic News Writer Ed Rochette reported that the coupons "have been offered by flea market habitues to dealers for resale…"

Rochette went on to explain "the potential need for gas ration coupons occurred in 1973 when most of the oil producing nations of the Middle East embargoed shipments of crude oil to the United States in reetaliation for U.S. Support of Israel during the Arab-Israeli war. Because the oil embargo led to an acute energy shortage, President Richard Nixon took steps to reduce fuel consumption."

When energy conservation failed to solve the crisis in the early stages of nationwide gas lines, the newly established Federal Energy Administration head William Simon helped plan a standby gasoline-rationing system, one that required the use of ration coupons. "The rush task of preparing several billion ration coupons fell on the staff of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. To expedite production, BEP simply availed itself of an existing vignette of George Washington used in the design of the current one-dollar bill. Although the ration coupons, overall, were one-third the size of the dollar bill, the Washington portrait remained the same size on both."

In 1984, despite a plea from one congressman that some of the coupons be retained and then sold to collectors to reduce the government investment of more than $15 million in the gas rationing plan, the U.S. Department of Energy ordered all coupons destroyed. The destruction was supposed to have been completed on June 26, 1984. Government records indicate one sixteen subject sheet was forwarded to the Smithsonian Institute on June 25, 1984. On the same date, another sheet was sent to the National Archives. Six additional sheets went to the Federal Energy Administration in accordance with an earlier directive.

Since that year (1984), additional single coupons and partial sheets have appeared from time to time, with the most recent partial sheet offered in early 2000 by Heritage Numismatic Auctions, Inc. (12 coupons, missing one column of four). To our knowlage, this is the first full and complete sheet of 16 coupons that has come to market making it a rare opportunity for the collector of numismatic ephemera of that bygone era. (Wouldn't it be a hoot if out of the latest energy crisis there issues forth some California "Public Utility Commission Electron Ration Coupons" or PU-CERcs!)