#eightpence

O’Brien Coin Guide: Truck/Scrip Tokens of Ballyglunin Estate, Co Galway

Introduction:

Perhaps one of the most dispicable practises of the so-called landlord classes in Ireland (and elsewhere) was the ‘truck’ system whereby employees were sometimes partly paid in ‘Truck’ Tokens, spendable only in the issuer’s own shops, where prices were generally higher than elsewhere.

The word truck is derived from the French troquer, meaning to “exchange” or “barter”

The truck…