Alaska Rural Rehabilitation Corp. (1935)

About This Series

Issued for the Matanuska Valley Colony — one of the most ambitious New Deal resettlement projects — these tokens served as the exclusive exchange medium for colonist families transplanted from economically devastated Midwestern farms to south-central Alaska in 1935. The ARRC produced denominations from one cent to ten dollars in brass, aluminum, and cardboard, redeemable at the colony's cooperative store. The token system prevented colonists from converting government funds to outside cash while establishing a self-contained economic ecosystem. Approximately 200 families from Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota endured a publicized journey drawing national attention. Tokens circulated briefly before the colony transitioned to conventional U.S. currency, and survival is attributable to colonists keeping souvenirs of their pioneering experience. Collected both as Depression-era artifacts and as documents of New Deal social experimentation, these tokens bridge exonumia, political history, and Alaskan frontier heritage, preserving a tangible record of one of America's most remarkable government-directed colonization efforts.