The Pollock “Relief Tokens”; Hamilton, Ontario.

It's not often that we encounter metallic merchants' tokens with denominations as low as 1¢, but one of the few on record was described by Ken Palmer in the July, 1985 number of The Canadian Token , under the title “The Relief Tokens of Sam Pollock, Hamilton, Ontario”.

	Tokens of Sam Pollock, “Quality Groceterias Co.”. All brass, approximately actual size. The 5¢ and 10¢ have serial numbers, the 1¢ does not.

The issuer's background was as follows: Sam and George Pollock began business in 1920 in Hamilton under the name “Pollock Bros., Grocers”. In 1933, the partnership was dissolved, George going his own way wholesaling and retailing malts and other home-brewing supplies. By this time, the one store had grown to a small chain of four, retained by Sam and operated under the name of “Quality Groceterias Co.” which continued to expand and contract in numbers over the years. There were still four in operation at the time of Sam's retirement in 1958.

But in 1933, Hamilton was hard hit by the Depression, records showing that 8500 families were on “relief” out of a total population of 155,000. At the time, “relief” was the term used to describe any form of public assistance to citizens who were no longer able to provide for themselves and included wages for “make work projects” as well as out-and-out welfare payments. In 1930, the Canadian government enacted the “Unemployment Relief Act” with the stipulations that the municipality in question bore all administration costs as well as one-third the funds disbursed; the federal government paid the other two-thirds.

Naturally, a great many of the Quality Groceterias' customers at this time were recipients of relief who received weekly food vouchers in even amounts and which could be spent at the store of their choice. However, the grocer was not allowed to make change for these vouchers in cash and it was this problem that the “relief tokens” sought to overcome.

Some time in or after 1933, Sam Pollock had a series of three brass tokens struck in denominations of 1, 5 and 10-cents. Each denomination was of a different shape and the 5- and 10-cent denominations were serial-numbered to forestall counterfeiting (the one-cent couldn't be counterfeited profitably). It was these tokens that were passed out in change when the food vouchers were used, thus obeying the “no cash change” regulations as well as tying the customership to the Groceteria stores. While it's obvious Sam Pollock would have had to pay more than face to have the one-cent made, all three circulated in and out of his stores rapidly over a period of time. They served their purpose admirably and are fairly scarce today.

Wayne Jacobs is numismatic expert. He is the award winning author of numerous articles. He is the secretary and editor of the "Mid-Island Coin Club Numismatic Journal"of Nanaimo, Vancouver Island , British Columbia. The MICC journal are hosted here: MICC webpages Copyright 2006 Wayne Jacobs. This article may be reprinted freely for non commercial purpose only if the resource box is left intact, linking back to us.