Green River Whiskey, One of the More Iconic Advertising Image in the World. Update for a new pickup

coinsarefun

Well, that's what some say
I have always been fascinated by this particular advertising token. Some say there are as many as 20 different dies.
Each slightly different. Also, there are some that say "Whiskey" and others say "Whiskeys"

"The Whiskey Without a Headache." As the original owner, J.W. McCulloch claimed it to be "the standard by which all other whiskies are judged." He issued many advertising items, the most famous of which was a lithograph with the inscription, "She Was Bred in Old Kentucky." It featured a snaggle-tooth old Black man and horse with a five-gallon demijohn of Green River Whiskey strapped to its saddle, both standing outside the Green River Inn.

"It is said by experts that this is the best known advertising picture in the world. Its owners do not claim this, but there is no doubt of its worldwide popularity," McCulloch said. He alleged that his whiskey had received the highest awards at eight world expositions and claimed in 1915 that it "has been used by the U.S. Public Health and Marine Hospital services continuously and exclusively for eighteen years and is now so used by all departments of the government."

In fact he did win a few:
1893 - Green River wins a Medal for Excellence at the Worlds Fair (U D Archives, Uncatalogued Document).
"Gold Medal Won By J.W.McCulloch's Green River Whisky in Paris: Owensboro Messenger, Aug. 29, 1900,

But, like most things the lithographs, jugs and other advertising items have been faked and copied.
Below is an original lithograph. If you want to read the link It will give you more information

This is supposedly the real one. On the link above will show you others.
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Another link to more memorabilia
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And for a price his Whiskey is still available today!
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.Below are the 5 tokens I have collected so far. the first 2 are Whiskies
The remaining is Whiskey. All have minor differences.
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SiriusBlack

How well do they bounce into a whiskey glass?
They are neat though!

Aspie_Rocco

Cool thread and fascinating subject

coinsarefun

@SiriusBlack said:
How well do they bounce into a whiskey glass?
They are neat though!

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I don’t know, I must try it......lol
Actually I really don’t drink but you wouldn’t know it from my last few threads

SiriusBlack

That's funny

bugbit

This may send me down an ebay rabbit hole... big whiskey fan

Timbuk3

Cool, I like it !!!

coinsarefun

@bugbit said:
This may send me down an ebay rabbit hole... big whiskey fan

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They can be had on Ebay for very little money, Its great, inexpensive fun!

ricko

Now they are cool... Did not know about Green River Whiskey... or the tokens...Not a whiskey drinker... Now, if they had tokens for Cabernet... Cheers, RickO

johnny9434

i like the nice selection of them tokens. just saying

thisistheshow

Very nice! And thank you for including so much information. I enjoyed reading and learning.

coinsarefun

I just received another today. I can not believe the state of preservation.
It looks like it was minted yesterday!
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messydesk

It may be "The Whiskey Without Regrets," but was it also "No-smell, No-tell?"

Treashunt

I found one years ago, while metal detecting

DNADave

@coinsarefun said:
Well, that's what some say
I have always been fascinated by this particular advertising token. Some say there are as many as 20 different dies.
Each slightly different. Also, there are some that say "Whiskey" and others say "Whiskeys"

I've been looking at these since this post, and have found other references of there being about 20 varieties.
I'm curious, do you think that number includes die states and die marriages?
Or is that 20+ obverse and reverse dies?

1630Boston

Very interesting, thanks

Is that a wishbone or a spur inside the bottom of the horseshoe on the reverse?

Hemispherical

Spur with smooth rowels. Or, came from deformed chicken.

These tokens are interesting.

tincup

These tokens have always fascinated me, ever since I found one as a kid walking along a river bank. Have obtained a few more through the years.

Aotearoa

I've got one of these. Absolutely no idea where it came from...

Akbeez

Very cool!! Where can I get some?

Tokens are cool too!!

hchcoin

Missed this thread the first time around. Very cool. Love the information provided. It just makes it that much more interesting.

coinsarefun

@DNADave , Yes I do. Perhaps reworking them gave various changes.
Another possibility is that they made so many of them die were wearing out so there ended up being even more
differences........ie.....grass underneath him, the tree, fencing and details in the building (bricks)
Other than the 2 versions of Whisky and Whiskies that's the only major difference I have seen.
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@Akbeez , these are relatively easy to find on ebay but wait for a nice example to show up/
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Thanks everyone else for the nice comments, these tokens are a very affordable way to have fun and collect

BuffaloIronTail

I now know what "Green River", a song by the Group Creedence Clearwater Revival was talking about.

Pete

Akbeez

But...but... what about this??? No headaches? Gotta try dat!

coinsarefun

@Akbeez , that is very cool, is that yours?

Akbeez

No but I'm intrigued by BOTH items. If there is such a thing as a no-headache whiskey -- HEE HAW!

It appears the distillery has been out of biz for quite some time and tokens and bottles are very collectable.

coinsarefun

Just came in the email. I really like NGC PhotoVision’s. They have a special price till end of the year.
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cladking

I've got seven different of these but one is just the last one with a hole.

These tokens are often encountered in quite poor condition and all of yours are remarkably nice.

One of mine is attributed by the previous owner as being 1934 and another as 1935 but I don't know if either is correct.

In my experience a couple of these are very common and the others are not common. The last one you have pictured is the one I encounter most often.

Most tokens and medals have mintages of 1000 but I have to believe the common ones are probably 10,000 or more.

cladking

I lack your first example with the small font on the horseshoe.

mannie gray

Cool thread and tokens.
I have seen these in exonumia dealers' cases and books but never really looked at them.
Quite interesting!

Zoins

@coinsarefun said:
Just came in the email. I really like NGC PhotoVision’s. They have a special price till end of the year.

Great token!

PhotoVision is better than before, but I still think PCGS is ahead.

The fact you cannot verify the image on NGC's site like PCGS TrueView is a big issue.

coinsarefun

I totally agree @zoins I do admit PCGS trueviews are unparalleled.
Maybe ngc will eventually get there

2ltdjorn

I suspect threads like this increase search results/inquires in ebay in the next 24-48 hours.

coinsarefun

OLD THREAD UPDATE for new one added.
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This is my first addition to the ones I have. I may not have found that many varieties that have been reported because
I'm looking for the best preserved examples. By doing this it can take me a lifetime of looking.....lol
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I need to change my way of thinking and catalog each image I find as reference and continue to buy the finest examples
I can find.
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If anyone can add to the images I have already it would be great.
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Anyways......here is the latest pickup which I posted in @Zoins Thread Token Thursday
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Zoins

@coinsarefun said:
Just came in the email. I really like NGC PhotoVision’s. They have a special price till end of the year.

Great tokens Stef!

I was excited about the PhotoVision special until the end of the year... until I realized it was to the end of 2018!

coinsarefun

@Zoins said:

@coinsarefun said:
Just came in the email. I really like NGC PhotoVision’s. They have a special price till end of the year.

Great tokens Stef!

I was excited about the PhotoVision special until the end of the year... until I realized it was to the end of 2018!

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Sorry about that The last submission I was told that for $5 they would image each coin but was available on internet only.
I figured that should be okay and gave them the go ahead.
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I did not know that what they meant was a slab shot available when you do a cert search.
Some came out okay, some VERY not okay
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But for $5 I can't complain

ZoidMeister

Dang, y'all are really good at finding rabbit holes with which you can trap Zoid in. Yet another subterranean labyrinth for me to explore. Where does it all end?

Never mind, I found it . . . .

http://hmpg.net/

Anyway, this thread got me poking around and I was compelled to pick up a "less than perfect" example for my growing hoard.

I'll post better photos when I get time to take them. For now, here are the sellers images.

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DCW

@ZoidMeister said:
Dang, y'all are really good at finding rabbit holes with which you can trap Zoid in.

It's a game we call "Trap-a-Zoid."

See what I did there?

LanceNewmanOCC

@coinsarefun said:

is that a f/o d/s or an over-stuck with different under-type? glad to see my eyes haven't failed me yet and i compared the images you posted to each other by scrolling up and down and then it just got the better of me and i had to open the large image of the first one and then it was blatantly obvious.

do you know if this is a common occurrence or do you just have a monster rare one there? knowing your purchasing proclivities, it could go either way.

awe crap, i think i just seen it. major clashing. all that for nothing. ><

ZoidMeister

@DCW said:

@ZoidMeister said:
Dang, y'all are really good at finding rabbit holes with which you can trap Zoid in.

It's a game we call "Trap-a-Zoid."

See what I did there?

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coinsarefun

@LanceNewmanOCC said:

is that a f/o d/s or an over-stuck with different under-type? glad to see my eyes haven't failed me yet and i compared the images you posted to each other by scrolling up and down and then it just got the better of me and i had to open the large image of the first one and then it was blatantly obvious.

do you know if this is a common occurrence or do you just have a monster rare one there? knowing your purchasing proclivities, it could go either way.

awe crap, i think i just seen it. major clashing. all that for nothing. ><

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If I have time today I will make a small markup. Overall even though I have not made this my full time
job I have not seen any huge varieties other than ‘whisky’ and ‘whiskies’
The only other big variety is one has very minimal background features. Other than that it’s very slight difference in grass, trees, etc...

DNADave

I have so many more than this. I think a large number of variations in the Green River tokens are at least as obvious as the Overton varieties of Capped Bust halves.

Whiskey
W (of Whiskey) under N (of Green)

Whiskey
W (of Whiskey) under first E (of Green)

Whiskey
W (of Whiskey) under second E (of Green)

Whiskey (No brick wall)
No ground to left of horses back feet

Whiskey (No brick wall)
Ground to left of horses back feet

Whiskies
Die clash, E between horses legs and clover above horses back

Whiskkey
Die breaks at G, R and N, and at left foot of man.

coinsarefun

Yowser’s @DNADave thanks so so much for posting. I’m going to sit at my desktop later and check these
out now that you point it out it’s very apparent! Please post more when you can

ZoidMeister

@coinsarefun said:
Yowser’s @DNADave thanks so so much for posting. I’m going to sit at my desktop later and check these
out now that you point it out it’s very apparent! Please post more when you can

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Another more subtle identifier are the facial features and head position of the horse's attendant. There are a pretty wide variety of faces, but you need a bit of magnification to appreciate the differences.

Z

DNADave

@ZoidMeister said:

@coinsarefun said:
Yowser’s @DNADave thanks so so much for posting. I’m going to sit at my desktop later and check these
out now that you point it out it’s very apparent! Please post more when you can

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Another more subtle identifier are the facial features and head position of the horse's attendant. There are a pretty wide variety of faces, but you need a bit of magnification to appreciate the differences.

Z

I tried looking at faces first, but I think you can get them narrowed down with other markers first. I've been working on a key to them off and on for a while, sort of like a dichotomous key for plant identification.

tokenpro

An often overlooked aspect of the Green River Whiskey tokens is that they are also considered magician's tokens and are listed in the hard copy standard work "Magician's Tokens And Related Items" by F.W. Kuethe, Jr. as Kuethe MT147. Listed varieties include with and w/o reeded edge and chrome plated (although I think the chrome plated version was not done by the die sinker). The Kuethe catalog was a Token & Medal Society Journal Supplement done in October 1978 and should be available in the Newman Portal.

Many brilliant uncirculated remainders of the issue are still out there. I recall selling at least four 50 piece bu rolls over time back in the 80's to a Springfield, Illinois collector who who seriously collected the issue by variety. Somewhere squirreled away I should have a 25+ piece bu group remaining IIRC -- but where?

LanceNewmanOCC

@LanceNewmanOCC said:
awe crap, i think i just seen it. major clashing. all that for nothing. ><
@coinsarefun said:
If I have time today I will make a small markup. Overall even though I have not made this my full time

no worries. i just botched what i thought i saw. just a MAJOR clashed obv.

DCW

Interesting tokens with a great pictorial

Catbert

This thread has been a fun read! 👍🏻

ricko

I like the Green River Whisky tokens... I occasionally look for one to add, then get distracted. Will eventually add one to my collection. Cheers, RickO

DCW

Nice associated piece of advertising: