Smith, Joshua (2020)
Book Summary
The Guidebook of the California Clam Shell Scrip Currency of 1933 provides an exhaustive list of specimens for the scrip currencies arising in Crescent City and Pismo Beach during the Bank Holiday of 1933. It summarizes the economic conditions leading up to the creation of the Clam Shell Scrip and the separate events which transpired to give the local merchants of both cities the idea to create a scrip currency using harvested clam shells. Contained within are descriptions of all known Clam Shell Scrip accompanied by modern day images of specimens that have been preserved. In addition are descriptions, based on historical records, of all Clam Shell Scrip purported to have been created during the Bank Holiday of 1933, but which lack modern day documentation. It is the hope of the author that this guidebook will aid in the identification and preservation of any remaining Clam Shell Scrip currency from either Crescent City or Pismo Beach and that perhaps a previously undocumented Clam Shell Scrip, thought to be lost to time, may be rediscovered.
