Legal Definitions - land scrip

A land scrip is a special type of certificate or voucher that acts like a form of currency, but specifically for claiming government-owned land. It gives the person or entity holding it the right to acquire a specified amount of public land. Governments often issued land scrip as a reward, a form of payment, or to encourage development, particularly to individuals or companies involved in public service or infrastructure projects. Because it is a "negotiable instrument," the original recipient could often sell or trade it to someone else, who could then use it to claim the land.

Here are a few examples:

• Imagine a veteran returning home after a major conflict in the 19th century. As a reward for their service and to encourage settlement in undeveloped territories, the government might issue them a land scrip for 160 acres. This veteran could then either use the scrip themselves to claim a plot of public land in a frontier state, or they could sell it to another individual or a land speculator who wished to acquire land.

  This illustrates how the scrip is a negotiable instrument (it can be sold) that entitles the holder (the veteran or the buyer) to possess a specified area of public land.

• Consider a large railroad company in the mid-1800s tasked with building a transcontinental railway across vast stretches of public land. To incentivize and help fund this massive undertaking, the government might grant the company millions of acres in the form of land scrip. The railroad company could then use this scrip to claim land directly for its tracks, stations, and towns, or it could sell portions of the scrip to investors and settlers to generate capital for construction and operations.

  Here, the scrip is issued to a company engaged in a significant public service (developing infrastructure) and allows them to acquire public land, which they can then use or sell to further their project.

• In the late 19th century, to promote higher education, the federal government might have provided states with land scrip under programs like the Morrill Act. A state government, upon receiving this scrip, would then sell it to private citizens or companies. The money generated from these sales would be used to establish and fund "land-grant" colleges focused on agricultural and mechanical arts.

  This example shows the scrip as a negotiable instrument given to a public entity (the state) for a public service purpose (education). The ultimate holder of the scrip (the buyer from the state) would then use it to claim public land, while the funds from the sale supported educational institutions.