Has anyone noticed an increase in the value of tokens, overall recently?

coinguy89

Almost all sides of the token sub-genres are selling for quite a bit more recently. Is there now more token collectors out there. This leads me to believe there is. Take for example "The Hunting Dogs" a patriotic Civil War token. More than four are known to exist. In 2002 one sold at a Baltimore auction for $6,000.00. In July of this year that same coin sold for $20,000.00. That's quite a jump for two years. Yes it is quite rare, but it's a token. Another example would be a token I just purchased off Ebay a couple of weeks ago. A Hickey Bros. hotel token from my local area, I was willing to pay quite a bit for it though. A farely common token that not too many are seen of sold for barely a dollar. The starting bid on mine was $8, quite a jump. I checked and the average price of store cards post-1900 is $7.65. That's quite a lot for a common token. Is it that these are so hard to obtain for the average collector that they are gaining value. I've only been involved with tokens for a few months. Could someone explain when tokens starting gaining such popoularity and value. I know they're not really that popular at all, but they're more than they used to be. Has anyone else seen high prices for run-of-the-mill tokens? Im curious as to what some of you think will happen with tokens in the future. I talked with Bret Palser from Eagle Eye Rare Coins about a month ago. He believes that mint state examples of tokens that are problem free will be rising in price dramatically in the coming years. Thoughts, comments? This is just my 2 cent's if im rambling on let me know.

lathmach

Token collecting is neat, and cheap for the most part.
That's the way it's going to be , too, most likely. There's a mountain of different tokens, and very few collectors.
Find a type that interests you, and specialize in them. Buy up the rare ones cheap.

Ray

ldhair

I have to wonder if it's that there are so many new collectors in general out there.
Folks seem to branch out once they are hooked.

kranky

I bought three CWTs at a show for $20 each. Two were brown Uncs and one was AU. I'm sure they were commons. Is that expensive or cheap?

goose3

People are looking for other more "affordable" things numismatically related to collect. Tokens are a perfect fit for that

coinguy89

Any others?

cladking

There are several hundred thousand different tokens and medals available and even more
which have been produced and there are no surviving examples. Probably fewer than 25%
of the 20th century tokens made have any remaining examples. There are large numbers of
unique and very rare tokens.

For a token to get a high price it must be cataloged and have a large number of collectors seek-
ing it. Tokens of great interest like an unknown city or a rare civil war token can get a significant
premium but many tokens are simply not widely collected because they have a steep price. If
you're collecting something like Ohio good-fors it can run into quite a bit of money paying 1$ to
$20 for thousands of different tokens which suppresses the demand for rare higher priced tokens.

Most token collectors are extremely unconcerned about grade. While CWT's have a large spread
in values based on grade these are about the only ones. It should be remembered that these saw
extensive circulation so higher grade pieces can be much less available. Some of these were also
made in larger numbers. It's unlikely that grade consciousness will spread much in other tokens
and medals. It's not uncommon for the difference of price between grades to be invisable and
some of these are traded with no mention of grade. Transportation tokens were also made in
large numbers many times and some are quite scarce or rare in high grade and many varieties are
almost impossible in high grade. This is an area which could see some new attention to grade.

These should enjoy a great deal of increased popularity for many years. This may not have a large
affect on prices though except in a few specific areas.

Gemini

Going back in time, when I first got interested in tokens some 40 years ago many R-1 BU CW tokens I bought I paid between $3.50 and $16.00...through the years tokens have been one of my better investments although my intent in collecting them was not at all for money gain in mind as I never ever thought the prices would escalate to the levels where they are today. When I heard of a person locally selling CW tokens I was interested. I went there expecting to see a few pieces. He wanted to sell the entire lot which contained over a thousand tokens and in seeing so many tokens at one time I was very cautious to buy that many besides I was a cash poor young newbie at the time. A couple of thousand dollars could have bought a new car then and I was driving a $50.00 1949 Dodge. I don't remeber the exact price wanted for the entire lot as I was so overwhelmed by seeing so many but it wasn't a great deal of money by todays values.

Earlier also the only information on CW tokens that was available that I knew of were the two small black paper covered books that had incomplete and vague information plus poor picture reference plates that was produced by George and Melvin Fuld. One being the Patriotics and the other Storecards. I discovered the earlier Heitrich and Guttag work on CW tokens which was the first major cataloging of CW tokens I believe printed in 1924. It contained some slightly better images but the information naturally was dated.
These books although they lacked clear photos and information were great and tremendous undertakings in their day and really paved the way for interest in the series and I have high admiration for these pioneers.

Since then with the forming of the CWT Society which has turned out some great books with large illustrations and their easy step by step die-agrams that makes die variety identification a snap even for a beginner. Many members have also researched and produced interesting articles and stories about these tokens which makes them even more fun to collect once their history is known. This new information plus the internet has accelerated interest in tokens. I really see interest in these historic and fun to collect series to continue to grow.

The prices for uncirculated pieces has really boomed although I have been content through the years to collect XF or AU pieces. If you are a collector and not an investor enjoy what you can afford and don't think you have to have the very best to enjoy them. With thousands of tokens and varieties you would soon go broke trying to put a set together in BU if even you could find them all. Dave Bowers has been collecting these since 1950 and says he still is lacking to complete his collection and needs thousands more.

I hope to post some pictures at some point as I am getting new camera equipment shortly.

Have fun you token collectors-Don

coinguy89

Thanks Gemini.