Bidspirit auction | FEDERAL GASOLINE RATION COUPON 1974

FEDERAL GASOLINE RATION COUPON 1974 ONE UNIT - A federal gasoline ration coupon for one unit of gasoline printed in 1974. As a response to the 1973-1974 energy crisis, the Federal Energy Administration planned a gasoline rationing system and had 4.8 billion of these coupons printed. After the energy crisis peaked and eventually failed, the Department of Energy shipped the gasoline ration coupons to the Pueblo Army Depot in Colorado, where they remained in storage until the mid-1980s. In mid-June 1984, following the belief that Washington's portrait could fool certain vending machines into mistaking the coupons for dollar bills, the federal government opted to destroy the coupons instead of offering them for sale to collectors. The entire population of gasoline ration coupons were supposed to be destroyed, however someone at the Pueblo Army Depot had saved a limited number for collectors. The coupon measures approximately 1.5” H x 3” W.