Canadian War Ration Coupons

The rationing of food during WWII was due mainly to the need to send food items overseas to feed troops and allies in war-torn countries. The Wartime Prices and Trade Board (TPTB) was formed in September 1939 and issued food ration coupons starting in 1942 that allowed holders to purchase items such as sugar, meat, tea, coffee and butter. All Canadian adults and children were issued coupon books. Coupons had no market value, and needed to be detached in the presence of the retailer when the purchase was made. Temporary war ration cards were issued to servicemen on leave (i.e. returning to Canada) or tourists. A total of 6 different war ration books were issued from 1942 to 1945. Each book contained between 7 and 10 panes of sequentially numbered coupons, and a postcard that needed to be sent in to get the next book.

I'm putting together a listing of different Canadian war ration coupons, including those used for food and gasoline, and any other items that were in short supply.

If you have information or images to share on these coupons or booklets, here would be a good place.

Here are some examples from the Canadian WWII ration book 2:



and some other ones from ration book 6:



I'm not sure, but "M" could have been for meat, "B" for butter, "S' for sugar, and V, X and Y could have been spares.

Cheers,
Ron

I find these just as interesting as postage stamps.
Here are some US ration stamps from a book from 1943. Sorry don't have any Canadian.












plus booklet cover front and back.

An after thought. I once heard that during times of war the head on the American Eagle symbol was turned to the arrows (in peace to the laurel leaves). If that's true shouldn't the eagle on the back of this booklet be facing the other way?
Perhaps some of our American friends can set me straight.

jamesw:
Nice ones. Thanks for specifying which book they were from. I've found that the coupons were different from one book to the next. I expect that the US ones would have been the same deal. But just by looking at the coupons themselves, it's not at all evident which book they were from, or even that they were ration coupons.
Cheers,
Ron

CindyCan2
Now I will have to find my WW2 ration books to see what is really in them.

I know this is an old thread, but I was searching the internet to identify some stamp/coupon that I didn't know what they were. I was guessing those were in fact rationing coupon, but I did not know from where and from when (There is no marking).

When I found this thread, I had the confirmation I needed. Here is what I was trying to identify:



Even if they are not exactly of the same format, I guess that they would be from book 1 or book 2 since they have the same background pattern. I am happy I found this thread!

Hi guys
Here are Canadian books...

james.. the eagle is correct as it is.

An interesting trivia question that turns out to be false, but yet there are a number of books, TV shows and historical events that occurred at interesting points in US history which kept the "rumor mill" flowing about it.

An interesting read about it can be found at this link:

http://www.snopes.com/history/ameri...turnhead.asp

The concluding paragraph is priceless where Winston Churchill said to then President Truman "The eagle's head should be on a swivel!":

A couple of more US ration stamps/ration stamp books:



And these were for the purchase of gasoline for your car:

Ahh. Suckered in by gossip again. Thanks for the clarification.

Thanks to all for posting your images. I had forgotten I started this post quite a while back. I've since been able to get examples of each of the 6 WWII Canada Food Ration Books, and have made a listing. The coupons for books 1, 5 and 6 are easily distinguished because the patterns are different. The whole pane for coupons from Book 1 is the image of a flower, so each coupon has a different background pattern on the front, and text on the back. For books 2, 3 and 4, the pattern is the same, so they can only be distinguished by the number on the coupon.

Here's the list. The numbers correspond to the book, and each pane of coupons in the book gets a letter.

Book 1 (Aug 1942): a) sugar (red, #1-13); b) spare A (green, for tea/coffee, #1-13); c) spare B (blue, #1-13); d) spare C (brown, #1-13); e) spare C (brown, #14-26); f) spare D (grey, #1-13); g) spare D (grey, #14-26). 28 x 21 mm.



Book 2 (Feb 1943): a) tea/coffee (green, #1-13); b) sugar (red); c) butter (purple); d) butter (purple); e) spare A (brown, #1-7); f) spare A (brown, #7-13); g) spare A (brown, #14-20); h) spare A (brown, #20-26); i) spare B (blue, #1-13); j) spare C (black, #1-13); k) spare C (black, #14-26). 28 x 23 mm.


Book 3 (Aug 1943): a) tea/coffee (green, #14-29); b) sugar (red, #14-29); c) butter (purple, #27-42); d) butter (purple, #43-57); e) meat (brown, #27-34); f) meat (brown, #35-42); g) meat (brown, #43-46); h) C (black, half size, #27-58); i) C (black, half size, #59-90); j) D (orange, #1-16); k) E (yellow, #1-16); l) F (blue, #1-16). 26 x 21 mm.


Book 4 (Apr 1944): a) T (green, #30-45); b) sugar (red); c) preserves/conserves (orange, #17-32); d) butter (purple, #58-73); e) butter (purple, #74-89); f) meat (brown, #47-54); g) meat (brown, #55-62); h) meat (brown, #63-70); i) meat (brown, #71-78); j) H (black, #1-16); k) ? (blue). 26 x 21 mm.


Book 5 (Oct 1944): a) sugar? (red); b) preserves? (orange); c) butter (purple); d) butter (purple); e) M (brown); f) M (brown, #26-50); g) P (yellow); h) Q (black, #1-25); i) R (blue, #1-25); j) R (blue, #26-50); k) ? (green). 21 x 17 mm.


Book 6 (Sep 1946): a) B (blue, #26-50); b) M (brown, #51-75); c) S (green, #26-50); d) B (blue, #51-75); e) M (brown, #76-100); f) S (green, #51-75); g) Y (purple, #1-25); h) V (black, #1-25); i) X (red, #1-25);. 21 x 17 mm.


Pepere_Jack your butter coupon is from book 4, and your sugar coupon is most likely also from book 4, although I can't rule out that it is from book 2.

There are still some gaps in the listing, and numbers missing for some of the panes, so if anyone has additional images or just information, please share so the listing can be as complete as possible.
Thanks!

Thanks CindyCan2. It is not a "sugar" coupon, it is a "Tea or Coffee". I find it bizarre that there is no number on it. All other shown here have one.

Hi Pepere-Jack:
Thanks for pointing that out. The sugar coupons were usually red, so that's where I got mixed up. I went back to a recent article on the Canadian war ration coupons:
http://bnatopics.org/hhlibrary/news...-03-w068.pdf

but there was no mention of coffee/tea ration coupons printed in red.

There is a possibility that your red tea/coffee coupon was from a temporary ration card, for which the coupons did not seem to have numbers. These were issued to servicemen on temporary leave, or tourists visiting for more than 7 days. See the example below:


Another possibility is that your coupon was from a child ration book.

Hopefully someone will be able to solve the mystery...

Hey! I might have a unique item!

Thanks CindyCan2. That is very interesting!