Do you know what this is?

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An acquaintance of mine who recently came from Cuba showed me this one-sided coin and others like it in different denominations.
coinhg.jpg
As you can see it says “C. ANGOSTURA” around the outside of “S.C.”.
We suspect that it was some kind of currency used by an employer to pay employees in colonial Cuba but honestly that’s just a guess.
Any suggestions would be great.

5 thoughts on “Do you know what this is?”

  2. according to history,there were places in Cuba,where the empolyers used to pay with a kind of currency,with value only in the stores around,and usually those stores were owned by the same “employer”….so,at the end,the employee was tight to that job,to that store,even the “house” where the employee was living was his employer’s property and it was payed with that currency…
    i dont know if that precise coin was one of those used as a method of payment or not…
    maybe SC means “santiago de cuba”……

  3. Debt bondage was very common in many countries including the United States. “Sixteen Tons” which was written in the 1940s depicted the misery of such a system:
    Sixteen tons, and what do you get?
    Another day older and deeper in debt
    Saint Peter, don’t you call me, ’cause I can’t go;
    I owe my soul to the company store…
    To my knowledge these type tokens were given to employees who worked in sugar mills and mines. There is no known sugar mill in Cuba (original or current name) named “C Angostura,” there is however, a place in Oriente Cuba by that name: Angostura. Perhaps this token is from one of the mines.

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