This book one was Issued to the public in May of 1942. At first it was used to ration sugar and later other coupons in this book were used for other products.
All coupons have numbers.
There were stamps inside the book which were numbered 1 through 28. The stamps 1 through 4 were the first stamps to be used for sugar. Each stamp would get you one pound of sugar but you could not use all of them at once, there was a limit of how much sugar you could get and a time period in which you could use your stamp such as a two week period.
Charles made the one on the bottom, if you notice the numbering system. The number 1.2.3.4 started bottom right.
I am going to explain how to make your own ration books if you are going to do the 1943 one year history project. Book one takes one sheet of paper to make the book.
"This post" is about "book one" because book one was used as a sugar book and started in 1942 and we will need it for the year 1943 as well, not just for sugar but for other important things.
This photo below of an article, May 14, 1942. No 1 means stamp number 1 and they are talking about sugar.
Each change would be posted in the paper and there was information available in different places such as the registration offices as well as the grocery stores.
Some stamps were for two pounds and three pounds, there was extra sugar sold with the proper stamp during canning season if one applied for the canning sugar. But all of this was controlled and for special times.
Below is a photo below of an article in the news dated August 10, 1943
We see this article in the paper that was on August 10th "1943" So we are still using this book one for sugar. It also is telling us that stamp number 13 is about to expire and stamp number 14 will be valid on August 16. They were no longer able to use stamp 13.
Some of the stamps will be designated for a pair of shoes and also coffee. I will explain as we go along. First important to make our stamps. All stamps had to be used during certain times that were allowed, they would expire and no longer be valid to use. Another one would be issued for a certain period of time that could be a short period or long period. This post I am talking about sugar but this applies for many different food and tires and gasoline etc.
When we start our study January 1, this new year of 2022, we will be 1943 and still be in book one but we will have already applied for book two because everyone was required to do so. They had to extend the registration date and if someone did not have a book one they could not register for book two.
For those of you that have no way to read the microfilms I will keep this all updated on this blog.
So Charles laid out the real ration book one on a piece of paper and the size is 10 & 1/4 inches by 8 inches.
He drew out 2 rows of squares, each row had 14 squares so a total of 28 squares. Each square is 3/4 of an inch and then started numbering the squares. the numbers are quite an unusual order, you start the number one at the bottom right square and then number 2 on top of that.
Keep numbering in that order...
He started penciling in the numbers before using the markers so he did not mess up the sequence of the numbers... This is a great family project.
He trimmed the paper to the correct size after the numbers were finished. You can make this the size you want and the most important thing is you have 28 square stamps that are numbered. We just decided to make it the size of the real book.
We did not have any official markers so he used some decorative stamps we had.
And then added a few official looking info lines and lettering. :) and then folded it in half lengthwise and then in half the other way to make the booklet.
So I guess you can guess which one is ours by now. :) He even added a few official looking numbers. I would love to see what children would come up with. If you make your ration books I would love to see them.
He made another book for me, each family member gets a book.
This is what it looks like opened up all the way.
You can think up many ways to make the stamps, but we have to have the right stamps. Book two we will have colors for our stamps and different numbers and letters with them. So you might want some colored markers, crayons, colored pencils etc.
If you are confused, Imagine what the people during world war 2 were going through.
I will give more information soon, I am posting as we are catching up here and I will give you more dates so you will know how to use them but you first need the stamps. We made books last time we did our study and we cut them out as we used them but then we had all these little squares all over the place. So then we started marking them off with a marker. Just an idea to pass along.
But just to know, if you cheat with your stamps you get jail time, that is what happened during the war. Just think, they did not know ahead of time what was going to happen, that had to be stressful.
This should be a interesting study. Hope you tag along or join in.
Grandma Donna
