Pismo Beach, California, 1 Dollar, 1933 (clamshell)

Grade Range: K-12
Resource Type(s): Artifacts, Primary Sources
Date Posted: 11/4/2008

When the Depression and resulting banking crisis hit their community, the residents of the coastal town of Pismo Beach, California picked an unusual but logical medium of exchange. Perhaps with tongue in cheek, the merchants and officials of Pismo Beach decided to make the best of a bad situation, and to make the humble clam shell into an object of trade.