Hello Forest County Residents!
This week I discovered a charge plate among the collection in the Local History Room at the library. A charge plate also referred to as a “charga-plate” was popular during the 1930’s-40’s and was used to make purchases when the buyer did not have enough money. The plates were embossed with the person’s name and address. The charge plate functioned by putting the metal plate in a machine with inked ribbon stuck between the sales slip and that plate that would transfer the plate’s image onto the piece of paper when it was pressed together. The earliest known record of the plate’s use was by airplane and gasoline corporations in the 1920’s.
The charge plate in the collection was issued to James Wegter by the Chicago Credit Plate Service, Inc.
