When World War II started, rationing started with petrol and it eventually covered items like sugar, meat, cooking oil, and even canned goods.  Every American was issued a series of ration books during this time, and the ration books contained removable stamps that you could use to get items that were being rationed.

If you didn’t have the necessary stamps, then you could not get what you need.

Rationing covered a lot of things, but did you know that it even covered items like leather?

That’s whats going on with this purse—instead of using leather, the manufacturer used vinyl instead of leather.  The interior of this remarkable find reads NON-LEATHER 1943 (the ration on leather ran from 1943 to 1945).

You can see this terrific find in my Etsy shop here.  Head on over and check it out.

What kinds of items like this have you run across?