Federal Fiscal Scrip

Food Coupons, U.S. Department of Agriculture

Federal Food Stamp Program · Series 1967 and 2000-B · non-transferable vouchers printed as banknotes.

Series 1967

First generation of the permanent program: “Agricultural Abundance” and “Healthier Families” vignettes, printed by the BEP.

Series 2000-B

Last generation of paper coupons before the close of the paper era (2004).

Historical Context

Two eras of paper food stamps

The printed version of U.S. food stamps spans two distinct periods: a temporary Great Depression program (1939–1943) and the modern permanent program (1961–2004), before the complete shift to EBT cards.

First program (1939–1943): began on 16 May 1939 in Rochester, New York. Recipients of assistance bought orange stamps equal to their usual food expenditure and received, at no cost, blue stamps to purchase foods declared agricultural surplus. It reached about 4 million people at its peak and closed in the spring of 1943: with World War II, employment rose and the surpluses that justified the program disappeared.
Modern program (1961–2004 / SNAP name from 2008): President Kennedy announced pilots on 2 February 1961 (first recipients in Paynesville, West Virginia, on 29 May; by January 1964, about 380,000 participants in 22 states). On 31 August 1964, Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Food Stamp Act (P.L. 88-525), which made the program permanent, placed it under congressional control, improved nutrition for low-income households, and prohibited discrimination by race, religious creed, national origin, or political belief. Until 1977 households had to purchase the coupons at a discount from face value; the Food Stamp Act of 1977 (P.L. 95-113) eliminated that requirement and began issuing the allotment at face value with no prior payment. Benefits were delivered in paper booklets —the form this collection documents (series 2000-B)— until the nationwide transition to EBT. The 2008 Farm Bill (P.L. 110-246) renamed the program SNAP, in part to reduce the stigma attached to the phrase “food stamps.”
EBT phase (1984–2004): the first Electronic Benefit Transfer pilot started in Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1984; Congress mandated it statewide in 1996 (PRWORA); and by June–July 2004 paper had been replaced nationwide.

Fiscal Year 2000

Food stamps in fiscal year 2000

The Food Stamp Program (FSP), administered by the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), was the largest federal food-assistance program. In an average month of fiscal year 2000 (October 1999 to September 2000) it served about 17.2 million people in 7.3 million households —around 6 % of the U.S. population.

Total program cost that fiscal year was $17.1 billion, of which $15.0 billion went to benefits. The average monthly benefit was about $158 per household (near $73 per person). Relative to fiscal year 1999, participation fell 6 % and benefit spending 5 %.

That caseload decline had been building for years: after a peak of about 28 million participants in 1994, the 1996 welfare reform (Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, PRWORA) and the 1990s economic expansion reduced the number of enrolled households.

Participation

Who received coupons

A little more than half of participants were children; 39 % were non-elderly adults and 10 % were elderly.
89 % of coupon households included a child, an elderly person, or someone with a disability; those households received 91 % of benefits.
Households with children received a higher average monthly benefit (about $234), consistent with a larger mean size (3.4 people versus 2.3 in the overall average).
About 89 % of participating households lived in poverty according to the federal guidelines for fiscal year 2000.

Appearance

How they looked in the 1990s

For almost the entire 1990s, benefits still arrived in booklets of perforated coupons that resembled miniature money: rectangular notes of about 146 × 63 mm (near half the size of a dollar bill), with typography, guilloches, and face value in the style of U.S. currency. The bicentennial design adopted in 1975 —the same design that closes this collection in series 2000-B— remained until the end of paper.

$1 (brown): the famous “little brown dollar.” Obverse with the Declaration of Independence scene and the Liberty Bell in the background; legends U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE / FOOD COUPON, “DO NOT FOLD OR SPINDLE,” and the non-transferability clause. See the specimen of the $1, series 2000-B.
$5 (blue / violet): portrait of Thomas Jefferson at left, Liberty Bell at center, and value medallion at right. See $5, series 2000-B.
$10 (green): portrait of Alexander Hamilton, eagle, and Liberty Bell (often with tactile relief on this denomination). See $10, series 2000-B.

At the register, the recipient tore off each coupon along the booklet’s perforated margin. If the purchase fell below the value of the coupon used, the merchant returned change under $1 in coin (not in coupons). The reverse was usually more sober (motifs in light inks: eagle, bell, value). Serial number, series year, and printer identifier (e.g. “2000 B”) appeared on the obverse.

In the mid- and late 1990s, several states began issuing magnetic-stripe EBT cards —similar in look and use to a bank debit card— which reduced the visibility of the benefit at the counter and anticipated the end of paper in 2004.

Production

Print scale and logistics

In the years of peak paper distribution (early 1990s), the Department of Agriculture estimated production of more than 2.5 billion individual coupons a year. Because they carried 1:1 value with the U.S. dollar, they were manufactured to currency security standards: intaglio (engraved) printing, watermarked security paper, and a rectangular format resembling a banknote —though smaller.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) began printing coupons in 1961. As the program grew, part of production passed to security-printing contractors (American Bank Note Company, United States Banknote Corporation, among others). The series letter identifies the printer: in the 2000-B series in this collection, the “B” corresponds to USBNC.

Denominations: in the mature stage of the program, individual coupons of $1 (brown), $5 (blue), and $10 (green), bound in booklets of different face values to deliver the monthly benefit.
Redemption and destruction: after merchants accepted them, the coupons returned through the banking circuit to the government, where they were counted and destroyed (shredding and incineration). In 1993 Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy put the cost of counting, shredding, and burning used coupons alone at more than $22 million a year —hence the constant pressure for continuous reprinting.

Technology

From the paper coupon to the EBT card

For decades benefits were delivered in those coupon booklets —redeemable only for eligible foods—. The first EBT pilot started in Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1984: the card loaded the benefit electronically (like a debit card) and left a record of each transaction, which improved delivery and reduced fraudulent coupon trafficking. The 1996 reform (PRWORA) then required each state to implement a statewide system no later than 1 October 2002. The EBT Interoperability and Portability Act of 2000 added that the systems had to be interoperable and the benefits usable in any state by that same date.

By 2001, according to the GAO, about 80 % of benefits were already distributed by magnetic debit-style cards. Paper disappeared in 2004; the SNAP name (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) arrived with the 2008 Farm Bill, which also legally deauthorized printed coupons.

Twilight of Paper

Last series and end of the era (2000–2004)

The last official series date printed on the coupons was 2000. Printings of the 2000 series —including 2000-B— continued in declining volume in 2001 and 2002 while the states completed the move to EBT. When USDA declared the “paper era” closed (June 2004), annual coupon production had fallen to zero.

According to the Food and Nutrition Service, by July 2004 all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands, and Guam were already operating statewide EBT systems (or territorial equivalents) to issue benefits. The paper coupons in this collection are therefore pieces from the final stretch of a distribution system that was extinguished completely in that transition.

Documentation