War Ration Book?

Can anybody shed some light on what these were for? My Mom gave them to me as they were from here Mothers family.

 

During the war they were rationing goods. These were your ration stamps for getting those goods. They seem incomplete to me.

 

Here is some info.
http://www.nationalww2museum.org/le...-history/take-a-closer-look/ration-books.html

 

Pretty simple --- rations.

I don't know if it ever came to food shortages in the USA but in Britain, everything you'd buy, almost, was strictly rationed so the rich could not buy up all the food. 2 ounces of meat a week, 2 ounces of bacon, 1 ounce of butter, and clothes were rationed too. And petrol(gas) of course.

If you went shopping you'd take your ration book, buy you goods according to how many ration stamps you had and the butcher or grocer would clip them out of your ration books (you'd have yours, your husband's, and one each for the children).

The last of wartime rationing did not end in the UK till the early 1950s, ao I remember shopping with mum entailed a certain amount of ration book use.

For more information Wikipedia has a good article on UK wartime food rationing, I imagine you can find out about the US scheme there too.

It is hard for anyone today younger than 60 to imagine just how long the effects of WWII stayed with us in England. Many bombed out buildings were not demolished and built over till the 1960s. Bombsites were great adventure playgrounds for children and beloved by dodgy second hand car salesmen for the cheap inner city selling space.

 

Hi,
We had ration books too. Since we lived on a farm we did not need the food rationing but the tires and gas and such. We had friends in the city that needed food but did not have cars so the gas and tires were traded for food coupons.
greg

 

What does that mean? If you mean the books aren't complete then no, some of the pages of stamps must have been used and are missing.

 

British county folk did much the same but it was strictly illegal. An unregistered pig could land you in prison.

This is a good film about an unregistered pig in 1947.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Private_Function

 

No.....I mean there is not enough information filled out on them, no address age or sex etc. Or what rations they were for..... but I really don't know a lot about them and how they worked.....so I could be wrong.

 

Maybe the Guy issuing them that day was in a hurry!!

 

Given how late in the period these must have been issued to have so many stamps left, they might have stopped adding all the details to the front.

Ray - did they live in a rural area? It could also be that in a sparsely populated place, everybody knew everyone else so things like the address, age, sex, weight and height were dispensed with.

 

I knew what they were and recently got some more but I haven't checked them over yet.

 

Yeah - back then My Mom said all this area was farmland.And that's why my Mom loves my ducks as she had them as a kid - although they were used for food - Poor things. Even my Dad (who is a tad bit older than my Mom) lived on a farm - he says they used to ride the cows to get around town as they couldn't afford bikes. He told me for snacks his Mother always kept a can of lard from all the fat renderings they would do and for a sweet snack his Mother would smear a piece of bread with the lard and sprinkle sugar on it!!

 

I'll be darn - What a time in history!!

 

Even fat went to the war effort. I think it was for explosives.
Odd this has come up now for I have been looking more into this lately.

 

I see them very often. They don't have much resale value as they are so common.

Even though these things were rationed, there never was any real shortages. It was mostly a gimmick to make people think they were in the war.

 

Sorry can't respond to anybody sooner, but picked pickle cukes today and in the process of trying to get them jarred before dark and feed and water the ducks. I only have enough time for 3 jars tonight, the rest tomorrow. I was gonna post a new thread but no time for that either so I hope this will do - and THANK YOU everybody that sent information and comments!! Back to pickling.............

A sink load today....

And 2 jars packed (1 filled with brine), 1 more to pack tonight...... Whew!

 

I remember my mother using ration books in California. The stamps were time sensitive, the ones for meat had red designs. There were stamps for leather shoes too. When my brother was born she was glad that he qualified for his own book even though he didn't yet need shoes or groceries.

 

It didn't matter where people lived, they all qualified for Ration stamps. Govt. people would drive around and pick up your cans and other metal objects for melting down and used for the Military.

 

Here they are! Note that none of the book fours are signed and asked less personal info on the cover.
Some are full or appear to be.
Those who know me here now have to know why I LOVE that green page!
I already have plans for that.
Does anyone want to see more of the stamps?
I do not mind if anyone wants to research these names.
~

 

I found two different types of ration books while going through my parents' things. A friend who is knowledgeable about many types of antique and vintage paper suggested selling the older of the 2 styles for $5 each and the newer ones, which are similar to yours, for $3 each. They sold quickly.