Could buy these with scrip, too, but Authority’s prices kept changing, upward.
Fiat currencies always decrease in purchasing power over time. Consumers only see this in higher prices for goods and services and are told that it's inflation caused by an imbalance between supply and demand, but nowadays that is almost never a significant factor in comparison monetary inflation. Citizens know prices go up ad infinitum intuitively. Every decade someone can say "remember when you could buy X with just $Y?" (This is extremely obvious when speaking to older generations, when they could buy things with pocket change as those coins used to have significant purchasing power). Think "chelines" in Nicaragua, or pennies globally. Pennies are not even accepted as currency outside the US, and within they are often thrown into the trash or on the street. Give pennies to a homeless person and be prepared to get a good tongue lashing.
