Legal Tender Tax Tokens: Farside or Liteside?

cladking

These were issued by state governments (or county in some cases) and were intended
to make proper change for sales tax. They were, however, considered legal tender in the
state of issue and were sometimes spent just like cash. The Secret Service deemed them
to be too much like money and forced the states to stop using them.

So are these really US coins (liteside) like the states, populous, and Secret Service believed
or are they tokens (farside) like most coin collectors believe?

..or is this just a loaded question?

flaminio

In my opinion these are the coolest bits of numismania that no one knows about. By just about any measure they are "coins", but they fail to merit a mention in the Red Book or just about any other mainstream text.

Do any of the majors slab them? They probably should...

Liteside.

Conder101

They are farside. They are not coins and they never were legal tender. (Even though people might have spent them like coinage, that doesn't make them legal tender or coins.) They were strickly tokens, a substitute for coins.

Steve27

They're darkside (you're farside).

Longacre

I really like these and think they are interesting. A kind forum member sent me a whole bunch of them for free!!

cladking

<< <i>They are farside. They are not coins and they never were legal tender. (Even though people might have spent them like coinage, that doesn't make them legal tender or coins.) They were strickly tokens, a substitute for coins. >>



For all practical purposes they were legal tender in the state of issue. If a purchase
totaled 25 1/2 c then you could tender and a half cent token or include a cent instead
and get a 1/2 cent token in change. While people wouldn't ordinarily tender several
1 mil or 5 mil tokens it's a safe bet it happened many times. They have always been
called tokens and the issuers and users called them tokens but they were used as coins
and were issued by a government.

There was never a 1 mil coin so these weren't truly a substitute for coins.

Granted this is all just semantics and probably a loaded question, but they certainly seem
to fit the defining characteristics of coins. Even the Secret Service agrees.

flaminio

<< <i>Granted this is all just semantics and probably a loaded question, but they certainly seem
to fit the defining characteristics of coins. Even the Secret Service agrees. >>

That's the bit that makes me consider them de facto coins. If they were bona fide tokens, the SS wouldn't've bothered.