Louisiana Trade Tokens lists and describes tokens used in Louisiana that were exchangeable for merchandise, goods, and/or services; used to denote an amount of work done; given as a receipt for some type of pre-payment; or otherwise having a monetary value. Excluded are paper scrip, items used strictly for advertising (with a few exceptions), souvenir items, poker and gaming chips, tool checks, Masonic pennies, and items used as a part of a national or regional promotion by businesses based in another state. Also, excluded are wooden nickels because a number of these have been produced by the manufacturers strictly for sale to collectors, and distinguishing actual issues from the questionable ones is impossible. Further, older merchant tokens are not listed, although these often circulated in lieu of the large cents of the day due to a shortage of coins. Punch cards, coupon books, and other non-reusable cardboard items are not included in the regular listings, but a summary of known items of this type is included in the appendix.