Military payment currency or MPC's for short, were how soldiers were paid. It was "the" currency used while in Nam
instead of US currency to help foil black
market activities. One of the first things we did when we
arrived in Nam was to turn our green backs into MPC and when we left the country to go on R&R or back to the states we
would exchange all our MPC back into US dollars. Every so often the military would change the color and reissue the script
and demonetize the old colored certificates. The idea was to make any money held by black marketeers worthless. No one was
supposed to know when the script color and design would change. So on a certain day you had to turn in all your old MPC for
the new issue. After that day all your old
script was worthless. They also kept an eye out for anyone who turned in a very large amount of old script on exchange day.
Any of the locals that had dealings with the US soldiers were paid in MPC by the soldiers. So even some of the locals used
it as everyday currency and they too had to change old for new on exchange day.
