It is almost as hard to destroy ration coupons as to get them.
From the time the first ration book was issued (1942), the Wartime Prices & Trade Board had been very careful. Used coupons returned to its audit office from suppliers and wholesalers were carefully checked, then stuck on gummed sheets to be destroyed. First, WPTB tried burning the sheets in a furnace. They clinkered and left unburned coupons inside. Next a blast furnace was used. Unburned coupons sometimes blasted right up the stack and out again; unscrupulous finders might pick them up and use them. At last WPTB hit on...