In 1933, Lassen County residents and their counterparts throughout the Golden State witnessed something in their shopping routine. California had instituted a sales tax. This, of course, saw an increase of pennies in circulation. As matter of fact, Charlie Bridges, then assistant manager of the local Bank of America, that in August 1933, 1,000 pennies every day were put in circulation in Susanville for a period of ten days. Bridges speculated that some of these pennies were going into piggy banks of local children.