Two Tokens I can't find anything about
Windycity
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I have searched across the internet for any information about these two tokens and can't find anything. Any help appreciated.
Ishpeming Michigan 1903 - " rough translation - "Marquette Jubiliee for the celebration of the soaring people of the summer season"
Maricle Mercantile Company Elkhart Kansas - 1c Trade Token
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@DCW ... any ideas ?
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they look to be simple merchant tokens that are probably scarce and the absence of any information is because the merchants were long gone by the time the internet arrived. you already knew all that, right??
@Windycity - The Michigan token is written in Finnish. The translation I got is "Marquette is a feast for the Finnish people. June 24 P. 1903." I believe the token references a Finnish-American folk festival held in Michigan. The image is the Coat of Arms of Finland. As you may know, the north-central US (Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota) is home to many Scandinavian-American people and Michigan has more Finns than any other state. Ishpeming is a city in Marquette County in the upper peninsula of Michigan.
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http://tokencatalog.com only shows a couple other tokens from Elkhart, Kansas, so it's probably a scarce town. A specialist in Kansas tokens would know.
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Remember that in 1903 Finland was still a captive province of Czarist Russia. Perhaps this was issued to help promote Finnish pride and the dream of once again being independent.
I like it for the Michigan context. In 1903 my Grandmother was still living in the UP in the Keweenaw Peninsula, though her ancestors were from Cornwall.
No idea. Without getting into the local merchant directories of the era, the best we have is the internet which is often inconclusive as @keets mentioned.
This is what makes exonumia fun, though. The research opportunity.
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The Elkhart, Kansas piece is part of a five piece merchant set that makes Elkhart an ok town - not dirt common as many KS towns are and certainly not rare. Four reported merchants from the town -- translating the five step rarity system used in the KS catalog would make this town a 2 on a 1-5 scale (1 common, 5 rare) which feels right as I've handled the town a few times over the years.