is there a market for tokens??

evilclay

My mom recently found a token from around the turn of the century. It's octogon shaped and says "Redeemable at Brock's Merchantile Adair, Ok" It's a 10 cent token in pretty decent shape. Ten cents was alot of money back in the day. I remember because I was like 0 years old back then. Any token collectors? Need some help.- Thanks- Clay

cladking

These tend to start around $2 and scarce ones can go up to $20 or $30 pretty easy. Popular
businesses in popular states can go for $100 or more and scarce towns for $200. Adair won't
be a scacre town. It's probably a few dollar token.

Gemini

Checked 3 trade token references Clay and there are just a few that are listed from Oklahoma and sorry yours was not showing.

cladking

Most of these tokens were ordered from the manufacturer in lots of 1000. Very few businesses
would order more than this and would actually circulate only a small percentage of their order. If
they had need of a reorder the dies would have to be recut since all the manufacturers destroyed
dies after use. This recutting would invariably result in a new variety and there would often be
changes in wording or valuations so a new type would be made.

When merchants retired these tokens, they often did so with unction. They feared that they would
fall into the wrong hands and be presented for redemption so the tokens would be destroyed in
fires or spread in lakes. About 90% of one manufacturer's California tokens have no known surviving
specimens! Tokens that do exist are frequently only the few that were issued and never redeemed
or the dregs that were left after the orderer retired. These exist in numbers of 6 to 100 generally and
will have light to heavy wear. Many tokens are "common" because the owner never destroyed the
balance of the order. These exist in numbers of 300 to 800 and generally have little or no wear.
There are numerous oddballs so there can be any number from 1 to 5000 of these tokens in existence.

Prices are determined by a complex formula accounting for type of issuer, location, wording (having city
and state spelled out), supply and demand. While this formula can give an excellent idea of value, some
tokens can bring a great deal more if a couple of specialists need it and it doesn't appear often.

Most of these good for tokens are cataloged by state and most states are cataloged. I'm pretty sure
Oklahoma is already cataloged but don't have the book at hand. The catalogs are usually compiled by
advanced collectors of the respective states in colloboration with other such collectors. Most of these
are quite good and some are nearly comprehensive. Due to the nature and use of these tokens there
is always a chance that massive hoards will surface. Indeed it's not too unusual to find a batch of sev-
eral hundred previously unknown tokens. In some cases you can even get lucky and find such hoards
from a businessman with several businesses and a penchant for picking up oddball tokens. This is a fas-
cinating collecting area and there are a few organizations which will help you assemble collections.

evilclay

Hey thank so much for the info. I do appreciate it!-Clay

Michigan

Hoards of tokens can show up in unusual places. Years ago around 1000 identical tokens for a local merchant were found in a bag that was
placed behind wall in a house. When the house was remodeled and the wall torn apart the tokens were discovered and ended up with a local coin dealer.

seemyauction

There is a market for trade tokens, you can look on ebay for such items, to me ebay is a research tool and not a price guide.


AL

Coxe

While going through boxes at more than a couple dealer's tables on bourses at mainly smaller shows, I have noticed token collectors. They seemed pretty dedicated and surprisingly a few were gals. One collector said he was fed up with the cost of doing regular US coins and was doing tokens as a refuge in a crazy market. I can see their appeal, much like national bank notes. Guess the market would be fairly thin with not a lot of profit potential but high collectibility. But I am hardly the most informed on them.

WinPitcher

Very informative post Cladking.


Thanks


Steve