Picked up a token with family ties

dbldie55

Does not look like much, but "Hap" was my great grandfather and my grandfather owned the bar from the end of prohibition to 1974. The current owners have owned it since that time. Did not know they had any tokens, so when I found one I had to have it.

Given the value (5 cents), I would assume this is from the time it was in the family.

CaptHenway

Way kewl! What town?

DCW

What a great way to connect your hobby and family history.
This is why I love exonumia

TheGoonies1985

Awesome congrats!!

CaptHenway

Never mind. Got it:

http://hapsbar.net/Haps2.html

DBSTrader2

Shame it says "good for 5 cents", instead of "good for 1 free beer", which may have been the going rate back then. Awesome to have something with such a family connection! Congrats! This calls for a beer!

johnny9434

That's a cool find congrats

tokenpro

The personal connection is one of many great aspects of trade tokens that help make them the most approachable of all the different types of tokens. The tokens come from your state, your county and your town and they were issued by the families of people you know or possibly even your own ancestors.

CWT1863

Very cool! I have a similar situation where one of my ancestors was associated with a trade token but haven’t been able to track down an example yet.

SenateSaloon

That’s a super cool token. My wife has tokens from her great grandfather’s saloon in grand junction, Colo. I love the tokens with a family tie.

Zoins

Great tokens @dbldie55 and @SenateSaloon!

Love the history you have with these!

Namvet69

Great family history and the old pics are a hoot. Finding that 5¢ token would send me on a mission to complete the set. Peace Roy

BillJones

Wow, that’s fancy @SenateSaloon! How old is that piece on a bi-metallic planchet? I though that those pieces were fairly new.

In fortunately no one in my family seems to have issued an tokens. I was lucky to find a piece of Civil War era script for the town where I grew up.

ricko

Those tokens are special when they can be tied to family, or even a native locale/business. I have searched for tokens from my little town, to no avail. Even though the area has been settled since the mid to late 1600's, there does not seem to be any tokens. I guess the idea did not appeal to the business people here. Cheers, RickO

Windycity

Very cool... family tokens!!

tokenpro

@BillJones said:
Wow, that’s fancy @SenateSaloon! How old is that piece on a bi-metallic planchet? I though that those pieces were fairly new.

In fortunately no one in my family seems to have issued an tokens. I was lucky to find a piece of Civil War era script for the town where I grew up.

The patents for that type of U.S. bimetal token were granted in 1899 to S.D. Childs & Co,, a Chicago die sinking firm which struck many of the known bimetal pieces. Most of the bimetal tokens were struck in the first two decades of the 20th Century. There are a few hundred merchants that ordered bimetal tokens but demand was limited by the cost as a $1 bimetal token cost over 5x as much as a similar all brass token.

As I mentioned a month or so ago, one of the satisfying parts of selling on eBay is the reach to families that otherwise would never know where to look for or even know that their past relatives used tokens.

SenateSaloon

Don’t know the exact date of the bimetallic but it’s likely between 1905-1909.

calgolddiver

very cool and awesome connection !!!!

NumisOxide

Really cool token!

jesbroken

That is special, special, special. Congrats. So glad you found this token.
Jim

coinsarefun

I love the look of that one an uber cool it’s your family

koynekwest

It would be so neat to find something like that!

CaptHenway

@tokenpro said:

@BillJones said:
Wow, that’s fancy @SenateSaloon! How old is that piece on a bi-metallic planchet? I though that those pieces were fairly new.

In fortunately no one in my family seems to have issued an tokens. I was lucky to find a piece of Civil War era script for the town where I grew up.

The patents for that type of U.S. bimetal token were granted in 1899 to S.D. Childs & Co,, a Chicago die sinking firm which struck many of the known bimetal pieces. Most of the bimetal tokens were struck in the first two decades of the 20th Century. There are a few hundred merchants that ordered bimetal tokens but demand was limited by the cost as a $1 bimetal token cost over 5x as much as a similar all brass token.

As I mentioned a month or so ago, one of the satisfying parts of selling on eBay is the reach to families that otherwise would never know where to look for or even know that their past relatives used tokens.

I collect a few things from Chicago token manufacturer Meyer & Wenthe, because their sales office used to be at 31 N. Clark Street, an address subsequently owned by Ben's Stamps & Coins, the Rare Coin Company of America (RARCOA), and since 1988 by Harlan J. Berk, Ltd., where I worked from 1989 to 2010!

I have a catalogue of theirs from about 1930, and as I recall they were offering bimetallics. Will try to dig it out and check.

TD

tokenpro

@CaptHenway said:

@tokenpro said:

@BillJones said:
Wow, that’s fancy @SenateSaloon! How old is that piece on a bi-metallic planchet? I though that those pieces were fairly new.

In fortunately no one in my family seems to have issued an tokens. I was lucky to find a piece of Civil War era script for the town where I grew up.

The patents for that type of U.S. bimetal token were granted in 1899 to S.D. Childs & Co,, a Chicago die sinking firm which struck many of the known bimetal pieces. Most of the bimetal tokens were struck in the first two decades of the 20th Century. There are a few hundred merchants that ordered bimetal tokens but demand was limited by the cost as a $1 bimetal token cost over 5x as much as a similar all brass token.

As I mentioned a month or so ago, one of the satisfying parts of selling on eBay is the reach to families that otherwise would never know where to look for or even know that their past relatives used tokens.

I collect a few things from Chicago token manufacturer Meyer & Wenthe, because their sales office used to be at 31 N. Clark Street, an address subsequently owned by Ben's Stamps & Coins, the Rare Coin Company of America (RARCOA), and since 1988 by Harlan J. Berk, Ltd., where I worked from 1989 to 2010!

I have a catalogue of theirs from about 1930, and as I recall they were offering bimetallics. Will try to dig it out and check.

TD

Other companies either licensed the rights or struck bimetals after the patent expired in 1916. Between Dave Schenkman & myself we have seen bimetals from Greenduck, S.G. Adams S&S, Safford Stamp Works, C.H. Hanson, S.M. Spencer Mfg., Moise-Klinkner, Northwestern Stamp Works, Meyer & Wenthe, R. & S. Engraving, Ingle, Wright & Son, , Murdock & more. George Greenburg obtained the original patent while he worked for Childs & Co. He later set out on his own & was half owner of another well known Chicago die sinker Greenduck & Co. but it appears that Childs kept the original patent. There is a ton of good information in Schenkman's "Bimetallic Trade Tokens Of The United States" (although the listings need a vigorous updating).

SenateSaloon

Wonder if this one is from the Chicago manufacturer? Patent date of July 1899.

tokenpro

Yes, that one is from S.D. Childs & Co & it has the apparent blundered date reverse (1898 instead of 1899). Dave Schenkman searched the Patent Office records and found no patents pertaining to bimetal tokens from year 1898. He notes that the Pat. July 1899 legend has been cut over a Pat. Appld For legend with the 9 cut over the R in For making it appear as an 8. The various reverse dies used have little or no correlation as to when the individual tokens were struck.

Swampboy

Love the family ties to the tokens.

When I was legal drinking age mid 60s (18 in my state) 3 of those 5c tokens would get you a glass of beer.
60c would get 4 glasses with the 5th (buy back) one on the house.