Store tokens from Mexico City

In November 1876 a newspaper reported that small denomination coins were still so scarce in the capital that small transactions were becoming almost impossible, and there were innumerable complaints and great damage done to commerce and to the public, particularly the poorer class. In an infinite number of establishments, various means have been resorted to to supply the lack of small change: iIn some businesses tokens, pieces of paper, soap or other objects were given instead of coin; and in others chits {contraseñas) which only served as a means of exchange in the houses that had issued them^{El Monitor Republicano, Año XXVI, Núm. 272, 11 November 1876}.