The Great White Bluffs Penny Famine
Local businesses are so short on small change that the bank is offering a premium to bring pennies out of hiding.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
For some unaccountable reason there is a considerable shortage of pennies in White Bluffs. At least there are none in the business houses. As an inducement to bring them out of their hiding places, if there are any here, W. J. Kincaid has authorized the Spokesman to say that the First Bank of White Bluffs will give a silver dollar for every 99 pennies handed to him within the next ten days or until the wants of the business houses in that line are satisfied.
“For some unaccountable reason there is a considerable shortage of pennies in White Bluffs.”
Cash shortages occasionally ripple through local economies, though today's digital payment systems have largely rendered the 'penny famine' an artifact of the past. It serves as a reminder of how tangible currency once dictated the flow of small-town commerce.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.