The events of 11 September 2001 led to increased U.S. military operationsand thus military deployments. Military Payment Certificates (MPC) were notissued for these operations but there is a collectable numismatic issue availablefrom this period.

Army Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) provides multiple services tothe military deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and OperationIraqi Freedom initially and then Operation New Dawn, Operation EnduringFreedom, Operation Inherent Resolve, and others as the conflict evolved. PostExchanges (PX), barber shops, beauty shops, gift shops, movie theaters and foodcourts are among some of the facilities available. There is a significant cost intransporting goods from the United States to Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan andother overseas theaters. AAFES wanted to make maximal use of the availableshipping weight for goods for the soldiers, and not use up part of that weight toship coins for use in its facilities. They therefore instituted the use of lighter weightplastic discs (polystyrene, 1.5816 in (40 mm) in diameter) in the values of 5 cents,10 cents and 25 cents as a substitute for change. They are "Gift Certificates", asonly the U.S. government can manufacture money, and are known as POGs. No 1cent POGs were issued so prices were rounded off to the nearest 5 cents. They areprinted on 29 by 40 inch sheets with 24 horizontal rows and 15 vertical rows. Theyare punched out of the sheet and shipped in trays with 500 POGs in a tray for the 5and 10 cents and 400 POGs in a tray of 25 cents. They are shipped in boxes thatcontain 10 trays.

"POGs" originally were a children's toy which is modeled after the milkbottle caps that children collected and used to play a game in the 1920s to the1950s. The Haleakala Dairy in Maui produced juice with paper caps on the bottles.One of these juices was a mixture of passion fruit, orange and guava. The firstletter of each juice is the source of the name POG. POGs were then manufacturedas toys. Since the equipment and material to manufacture POGs already existed thedecision was made by AAFES to use POGs for change.

There are 16 series of AAFES POGs, but there were no 5 cents POGs issuedfor the 8th, 12th and 13th series as there were enough already in circulation."Printing" and "issue" are used instead of series in describing POGs in somereferences, but series is used here, as that is how MPC are listed. The first POGSwere a simple design and has "Gift Certificate" across the top, "AAFES" acrossthe bottom and the denomination (5¢, 10¢, 25¢) in the center on one side of thePOG. On the other side, the denomination (5¢, 10¢, 25¢) is located at the top,"AAFES" on the bottom and three lines of text in the middle which state: "Thisgift certificate has a retail (line 1) value of (5¢, 10¢, 25¢) cents and is redeemable(line 2) only at your BX/PX" (line 3). The background is white/grey on the 5 cents,brown on the 10 cents and red/brown on the 25 cents. For the 2nd to the 14th seriesthe denomination side has AAFES at the top, the denomination (5¢, 10¢, 25¢) inthe middle and GIFT CERTIFICATE at the bottom.

There are exceptions whichinclude the 5th series 10 cents POG that has Bassett under 10¢ and two of the 11thseries 25 cents POGs that have the Pizza Hut Express and Taco Bell Express logoin the center with "This gift certificate has a retail value of 25¢ and is redeemableat any AAFES facility." proceeding along the edge from upper left to upper right ina counterclockwise direction with 2008 at the top. For the 15th and 16th seriesAAFES was replaced with EXCHANGE at the top. For the 2nd to the 16th series thebackground color of the POGs is blue for the 5 cents POG and is a photograph ofwater, green-brown for the 10 cents POG which is a picture of rust on a vehicleand red for the 25 cents POG which is a photograph of fire made by battleshipguns.

For the 2nd to the 16th series the side opposite the denomination has a pictureas the background. Curving along the edge from upper left to upper right in acounterclockwise direction is "This gift certificate has a retail value of (5¢, 10¢,25¢) and is redeemable only at your BX/PX." Starting with the 4th series "only atyour BX/PX" was replaced by "at any AAFES facility". The 15th series "AAFESfacility" was replaced with "Army & Air Force Exchange facility". For the 16thseries "Army & Air Force Exchange facility" was replaced by Exchange facility".

There were a variety of images used but some themes were military aircraft andequipment, classic photos, the Greatest Generation (noted as GG on the POG),Elvis Presley (6th series), NASCAR, images from series 681 MPC (face of $1, $5,$10), Marvel comics, photo contest (9th & 11th series), U.S. presidents andcompany logos (Red Bull, Coke, Sprite, Coca Cola, AT&T). There were also POGwith a metallic coating, three-dimensional image, and lenticular images (differentimages when tilted). It needs to be noted that the use of a company logo on POGswas to show appreciation for the company's support of military family supportprograms. Starting with the 5th series there were POGs with and without theoverprint OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM and OPERATION ENDURINGFREEDOM. OPERATION NEW DAWN replaced OPERATION IRAQIFREEDOM for the 15th series.

There are 3 classification systems. The system used most often was an alphanumeric system created by Doug Bell and Steve Swoish. The series is designatedby a number followed by a letter for the POG (A-M with no I), then thedenomination (5, 10, 25) and then 1 (for one each, later this was dropped). If itcomes with and without an overprint, then it is followed by W (with) or WO(without). For example, 14D251WO is the 14th series, POG D, 25 cents withoutoverprint.

The Standard Catalog of World Paper Money Specialized Issues has themlisted after MPC from M121 to M591. The POGs with and without overprints aresubcategorized as (a) for POGs with the overprint and (b) for the POGs without theoverprint.

The Concise Catalog of U.S. Military Payment Certificates list the POGs asnumber 1-502. The POGs with and without overprints have separate numbers.

Each series of POGs was only printed once and issued. The last series ofPOGs is the 16th , dated 2017. The POGs can be obtained only at the facilities wherethey are issued. POGs that are turned in to AAFES/Exchange in the U.S. aredestroyed.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
NEW BOOK: AAFES - POGS ILLUSTRATED CATALOG(https://www.coinbooks.org/v23/esylum_v23n37a03.html)