Virtual Golden
2PM and 7PM Almost, Maine
Golden High School’s Stage Right Productions presents Almost, Maine by John Cariani. – Buy Tickets
1-2:30PM Virtual Dungeons & Dragons for Beginners
3:30-5PM Virtual Dungeons & Dragons for Advanced Players
5-7PM Cannonball Creek 8th Anniversary Virtual Concert: The One And Only Jon Ham
7:30PM Miners Alley Playhouse Quarantine Cabaret
Jenna Moll Reyes & John Hauser
Join Denver performers Jenna Moll Reyes (4000 Miles) and John Hauser (ONCE, Biloxi Blues) as they play a mix of original songs and some cool classics! This event will be live streamed with our new state of the art live-streaming video and audio equipment. Live Streaming starts at only $5. Tickets and more information
Real World Golden
11AM-2PM Brunch at the Rose
2PM Wild West Walking History Tour
Golden History Moment
The Golden community had experienced high unemployment for many months by March of 1933. A local relief organization had been formed to accept donations and help local families in need.
The crisis was suddenly exacerbated when Golden’s bank closed on March 6th as part of Roosevelt’s “bank holiday.” The closure was at first expected to be of short duration, but in the end it lasted for four years. Unfortunately, the money collected by the Golden Relief Fund had been kept in Golden’s Rubey Bank.
Those who had already contributed to the relief fund felt a bit tapped-out, and the loss of the bank meant the entire community was short of cash.
By chance, the Relief Committee had just launched a program which promised to help with both problems: Golden Welfare Scrip. “Scrip” is paper issued in lieu of cash payment. It depends on people and businesses being willing to accept it. Several of Golden’s community leaders persuaded Golden businesses to take Golden Welfare Scrip.
Here’s how it worked: unemployed men (I think it was always men) would perform some community service–often road work. At the end of the week, the Golden Relief Committee would pay them in Scrip.
Golden businesses would buy a booklet of stamps from the Relief Committee. Each stamp cost 2 cents. Every time a Golden business accepted Relief Scrip, they would attach a 2 cent stamp, then pass it along to some other business as they bought supplies or settled accounts.
A business accepting Scrip would be paying 2 cents for each dollar of Scrip they accepted, but it was a relatively easy way to contribute to the relief fund, and it did bring customers in the door.
The Transcript promoted the use of Welfare Scrip by sending a reporter out to follow a $1 Scrip certificate through the community. They published an article detailing every transaction. Here’s an abbreviated version:
The street supervisor was paid for road work with Golden Welfare Scrip. He used it at Golden’s Red & White for groceries. The grocery store took it to the Colorado Central Power Company and applied it to their electricity bill. The Power Company used it at the Transcript to pay for advertising. The Transcript use it to pay one of their reporters. He took it to Stewart’s and bought some groceries. Stewart took it to the lumber yard to pay for coal. The lumber yard used it at Koenig Mercantile for groceries. Koenig used it at the Golden Mill to buy flour. The Mill used it to buy gas. The gas station owner applied it to his account at Hertel’s clothing store. Hertel used it at the City Market for groceries. The City Market took it to the Power Company to apply to their electricity bill…. And so on, and so on.
The article went through 50 transactions, which included a purchase of a cream puff, a car payment, hardware, more coal, more advertising with the Transcript, more groceries, chocolate, more flour, a phone bill, some electrical work, the book store, shave and a trim at the barber shop, a doctor’s bill, insurance, etc.
Each merchant attached a two cent stamp. In the end, the final Scrip holder could present the Scrip with its 50 stamps to the Golden Relief Committee and receive $1 in real currency. The Transcript speculated that a Scrip holder might just keep it as a souvenir instead–in which case, Golden Relief would be ahead $1. In the meantime, many Golden businesses had done $1 in business that they might not otherwise have gotten.
The program ran from March through September, 1933. At that time, the Relief Committee invited people to redeem any outstanding Scrip for cash. They observed that several local industries had been hiring and paying cash, and that the crisis of having too little currency in Golden was over. The Relief Committee calculated that more than $8,000 worth of business had been conducted using Golden Scrip. Many individuals chose to retain Scrip as souvenirs, and some big-city banks paid a premium to acquire it as an historical curiosity.
Many thanks to the Golden History Museum for providing the online cache of historic Transcripts and to the Golden Transcript for documenting our history since 1866!
Coronavirus Update
Public Health References
CDC * Colorado * Jefferson County * City of Golden
Jefferson County is at Level Orange, “High Risk.” Here’s the most recent Coronavirus report from Jeffco Public Health’s Case Summary Page:
Cases in Jeffco – Thurs: 32,553 | Fri: 32,720 (+167)
Deaths in Jeffco – Thurs: 684 | Fri: 685 (+1)
Currently Hospitalized in Jeffco – Thurs: 52 | Fri: 60 (+8)
Known Cases in Golden – Thurs: 1234 *
Recovered – Thurs: 29,864 | Fri: 29,992 (+128)
* Golden cases are updated on Monday and Thursday. The other stats are updated Monday through Friday.
The Jeffco Public Health office will be closed on Monday for Martin Luther King Day, so their next update will be posted on Tuesday and will appear in What’s Happening in Golden? on Wednesday.
Mines COVID Testing | Jeffco Fairgrounds COVID Testing | School of Mines COVID-19 case page. | Stage 1 fire restrictions | Sign up for exposure notifications.
