P.R. Laws tit. 29, § 178
It shall be unlawful for any corporation, company, partnership, or person engaged in any trade or business, to issue, sell, give or deliver, either directly or indirectly, to any person employed as a laborer, journeyman or foreman by said corporation, company, partnership or person, in payment of wages earned or to be earned by said laborer, any certificate, ticket, check, script, draft, commercial check or other evidence of indebtedness or of credit payable or redeemable otherwise than in lawful money. If any such certificate, ticket, check, draft, script, commercial check or other evidence of indebtedness or of credit is so issued, sold, given or delivered to said laborer or to any other person for delivery to such laborer, it shall be held and construed in all courts and other places to be a promise by said corporation, company, partnership or person issuing, selling, giving or delivering it to the person stated therein, or to bearer, to pay the sum specified therein in legal form; Provided, That it shall also be unlawful to exchange said certificate, ticket, check, draft, script, or commercial check for anything other than lawful money directly. And any corporation, company, partnership or person so issuing, selling, giving, or delivering such certificate, ticket, check, script, draft, commercial check or other evidence of indebtedness or of credit shall, moreover, be guilty of misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall be fined not less than twenty-five dollars ($25) nor more than five hundred dollars ($500), and the officer, employee, or agent of such corporation, company, firm, or person, guilty of the said offense, may be committed to jail for a term of not less than ten (10) days nor more than six (6) months, in the discretion of the court; Provided, That any officer, employee, or agent of a corporation, company, firm or person exchanging said certificate, ticket, check, draft, script, commercial check or other evidence of indebtedness or of credit for anything other than lawful money directly, shall also be guilty of the offense stated in the preceding Proviso, and shall be liable to the penalty therein prescribed.
History —Mar. 12, 1908, p. 171, § 1; Apr. 28, 1931, No. 61, p. 408, § 1, eff. 90 days after Apr. 28, 1931.