Word: scrip
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...some of its employees, in their official capacity, can hardly avoid knowing of illegal dealings? An estimated $1 billion to $2 billion has been siphoned from Viet Nam into U.S. and foreign banks by profiteering Americans, Vietnamese and their allies. Typically, black marketeers sell Americans their illegally obtained military scrip at discounts of up to 60%. The Americans then take the scrip to a bank and buy travelers' checks or a certified check...
Since posing as a deliveryman is a favorite trick of burglars, many luxury apartment houses require the doorman to accept all packages. After a number of sanguinary holdups, one fatal, bus drivers have no access to cash (passengers must use tokens or take scrip in change). Some athletic events in public high schools have been canceled or played unannounced because crowds have gone on the rampage at earlier games. "A lot of us-and I was one-kept saying that it couldn't happen here," says Mrs. Tom Wicker, wife of the New York Times columnist...
Obviously, the military's move had all but ended black-market manipulations in the old MFCs. But what of the new scrip? Within 48 hours after C-day, it was selling on Saigon's black market at the familiar rate of 140 piastres to the dollar. "Now that the switch has happened," explained one speculator, "we know it won't happen again for some time...
Some of the buyers were Americans, who preferred to spend MFCs whenever possible and save their regular dollars to sell on the black market. They had ample reason. "Green" dollars, which wealthy Vietnamese coveted for squirreling away outside the country, brought about 200 piastres in illicit dealing. The scrip was also purchased by natives, who used it to buy military PX goods through G.I. contacts...
...risk was that the U.S. command could switch scrip at any time and thus leave speculators holding worthless paper-which is exactly what happened last week. Inside their bases, American personnel were instructed to cash in their MFCs for a series of crisp new ones. They were allowed to exchange up to $250 worth, with no questions asked, but had to give a strict accounting of how they had acquired any MFCs above that amount...