I have a World War II ration book and wonder if you could help me find out what the stamps were to be used for. It is War Ration Book No. 3. There is no date but my age at the time was 18 (September 1943-September 1944).
There are pages of stamps about the size of postage stamps. There are four of each letter from A to Z. Each stamp in each set of letters has the number 1, 2, 5 or 8.The top half is light blue. The bottom half is light brown.
I used four of the G stamps and two of the H stamps.
Then there are pages of smaller stamps (1 inch by 1/2 inch). They are light blue with black pictures. There are 48 on a page.
One page has a cannon on the stamps, one page a tank, one page an airplane. I used three of the airplanes.
Then there are 12 small stamps, not attached to the book. They have a red horn of plenty on them and red letters and either the number 1 or the number 2. - L.P., Orem.
Your question is difficult to answer because ration stamps were not for any specific product and they had no set value. Stamps were used for a variety of items that changed over the course of the war.
Rationing ensured that goods not going toward the war effort would be distributed equitably and that demand for items in short supply wouldn't raise prices, causing undue inflation. Rationing also was intended to prevent a black market.
Answering your question was not easy. We called the Salt Lake City Library, the Marriott Library at the University of Utah, the Library of Congress and the National Archives in Washington, D.C. The most complete information came from the Civil Reference Branch of the National Archives.
We reiterate that we can't tell you what products your stamps were used for because their designations were variable. We can, however, pass on general information about the rationing program.
Rationing was used between January 1942 and December 1945. Tires, automobiles, gasoline, bicycles, fuel oil, kerosene, stoves, solid fuel, sugar, coffee, processed foods, meats, fats, canned fish, cheese, canned milk, rubber footwear, shoes and typewriters were rationed for varying lengths of time.
Four ration books were issued during the war to purchase products that were not transportation-related commodities or fuel. The stamps had no set value and were not for any specific product (with the exception of sugar and coffee stamps in War Ration Books 1 and 2).
The Office of Price Administration, which oversaw rationing, periodically announced the value of stamps in terms of how many units of a product could be acquired and which stamps were applicable to a product. The OPA would also announce when a stamp became valid. If supplies were short, the next stamp might not become valid for a month, delaying the second purchase of that product and conserving supplies.
The program sometimes varied from one region of the country to another. For example, gasoline rationing began much earlier on the East Coast than in the rest of the country. Solid fuels were rationed only in the Pacific Northwest.
War Ration Book 3 was issued in July and August 1943. Four of the eight pages were for a proposed apparel rationing program. The OPA didn't want to disclose the apparel rationing program ahead of time so the stamps had "blind" devices to identify them - tanks, planes, ships and guns. Apparel was not rationed, although four of the apparel stamps were eventually used for shoe rationing.
The other four pages of the book had brown stamps for meat rationing.
If any of our readers have recollections about rationing stamps and what they used them for, please send us a letter.