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There was an extended period when state chartered banks could print their own currency. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Banking_Era

That’s not a Johnny Cash song although he did release a cover of it:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixteen_Tons

Drat. I knew I shouldn't've gone off memory. (Wikipedia says it's a Merle Travis song.)

No, very different than company store (those "currencies" were referred to as "scrip")

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_scrip

That Wikipedia article seems to talk about company stores a lot, actually.

> […] even in [locations] that were not [poor], workers paid in scrip had little choice but to purchase goods at a company store, as exchange into currency, if even available, would exhaust some of the value via the exchange fee. With this economic monopoly, the employer could place large markups on goods, making workers dependent on the company, thus enforcing employee "loyalty".