The National Scrip Collectors Association, Inc. (NSCA) is a non-profit Kentucky corporation composed of hundreds of token collectors from throughout the United States. The organization began in the late sixties as an informal gathering of interested collectors in Southern Appalachia who met to swap scrip. Originally, these folks focused on coal scrip, but they came to realize that lumber companies also used scrip. In fact, some firms both mined coal and logged timber. In addition, the coal companies issued “exploder” tokens to control the flow of explosives used in underground mining. All three of these types of tokens became the focus of collectors.

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In 1972, the loosely organized scrip collectors incorporated, and in 1974, the NSCA worked with Don Edkins to publish the first edition of Edkins’ Catalogue of United States Coal Company Store Scrip. This publication is now in its fourth edition and includes two volumes.

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Over the past 50 years, the NSCA annual membership meetings have been held in Eastern Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Southwest Virginia, East Tennessee, East and West Kentucky, and Southern Illinois. Today, the NSCA holds a spring meeting in West Virginia and a fall meeting elsewhere in Southern Appalachia. These meetings are open to the public. Members as well as dealers sell and trade scrip and other related collectibles.

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Since the early 1970s, the NSCA publishes a quarterly newsletter entitled “Scrip Talk”, that includes business items and club news, newly discovered scrip tokens, and scholarly and informative articles about scrip and its historical usage throughout the United States.

 

Membership in the NSCA is open to all persons. Meetings are held at handicapped accessible facilities. Our current membership represents all geographical regions of the United States from Alaska to Florida, California to New England and points in between.