Scrip

Webster's 1913 dictionary defines scrip as a written certificate and, in American use, paper fractional currency. Company scrip was issued by employers, as in remote coal and lumber towns, and could be exchanged only at the company's own stores. Paying wages in scrip became illegal in the United States in 1938 under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Land scrip was a right to buy federal public land. Congress granted it in place of cash, and the scrip was often sold several times through land agents before the land was finally claimed.