ANTI-TRUMAN SCRIP OF 1952

Of the three pieces of scrip, the Truman Dollar is the most enigmatic note. The front features a rather ungainly building that may be a rendering of the proposed Truman presidential library. Despite featuring the denomination 100, the note is labeled Good for One Red Herring, a reference to Truman's dismissive reaction, in 1948, to the House Un-American Activities Committee investigation into communist influence in the government, which he termed a red herring meant to distract the American public from congressional inaction on the President's domestic priorities. Above that are the words, Made for Womans [sic] Brigade for Eisenhower.

 

 

Dating from March of 1952, just around the time that Truman announced his intention not to run, the Inflation Certificate made something of a splash when it appeared, attracting newspaper commentary around the country and even some hostile scrutiny from the Secret Service, which objected to its anti-Truman parody of the U.S. dollar. Like their anti-LBJ product the Bettor Deal Certificate that would appear twelve years later, Edwin James Mantooth and Graves Nellis (Jack) Fulshear affected a yuk-yuk style of satirical humor that piled on reference after reference to Truman Administration peccadillos. In their overall effect, their notes were quite similar to the novelty currency put out at the time by another Houstonian, Leo Urban Luke Kaiser, the owner of Premier Printing. An amateur magician and something of a jokester, Kaiser and his company produced a wide variety of gag money over the years, typically in exaggerated sizes, that made affectionate fun of their topics, notably the State of Texas. Unlike Mantooth and Fulshear, Kaiser steered clear of politics.

 

 

To read the complete article, see:
The Buck Stops Here: Anti-Truman Scrip of 1952 (https://spmc.org/blog/buck-stops-here-anti-truman-scrip-1952)

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