"Come upstairs," she said, "my husband doesn't understand me....."

DBSTrader2

Dear COIN WORLD Magazine:

I'm a long-time reader, but I never expected what I am writing about to ever happen to me!!

The other day, a separated ladyfriend of mine came by my house for some "advice". Something about an old, large "Album for 20th Century Coins of the World" she had from many years back, with coins from places & dates she hadn't a clue about................

(What? You were expecting another type of letter?! )

Anyway, this is a large, green, 10x13 album with 4 pages worth 6 rows of 6 one-side-visible holes covered by removable plastic "sleeves. Each hole had at least 2 coins jammed in it, hardly any newer than the mid-50's.

So I'm checking thru them all to see exactly what she has & what they may be worth, as she might want to sell them on eBay. So far a decent amount of early 20th century & silver. And several surprises. Anyone collect transit tokens or state "tax" or "local welfare" tokens? Can you explain them to me & what their value might be if I am able to list a few?

Well... it's back to identifying the rest of them!

- - Dave

satootoko

<< <i>transit tokens or state "tax" or "local welfare" tokens? Can you explain them to me & what their value might be >>

They are all exactly what they sound like.

Transit tokens were issued by both public and private transportation companies for use on their trains/buses/streetcars. Typically they would sell at a slight discount to the cash fare price, like six for a quarter when the fare was 5¢

Nowadays sales tax is rounded off at the nearest cent, but when I was a kid many states had metal tokens or paper coupons denominated in mils which merchants could obtain from the State and use for change to round the tax to 1/10¢. Customers could then use them to pay sales tax with

Welfare tokens were an early example of the concept behind food stamps - give the poor a distinguishable form of "currency" so their spending can be monitored.

Token collecting is a recognized branch of exonumia, and I believe there are token catalogs, but generally transit and tax tokens are not particularly valuable.

DBSTrader2

Thanks for the info! I find it especially interesting about the tax tokens............ I can't fathom how it couldn't have COST the states more than 1/10 of a cent to produce, store, distribute, manage redemption, etc them - - same for the shopkeeper, customer, etc.

I had heard of them before when reading various posts, but had never actually seen so many in one place in front of me.

Thanks again!

- - Dave

satootoko

<< <i>I can't fathom how it couldn't have COST the states more than 1/10 of a cent to produce, store, distribute, manage redemption, etc >>

You obviously are too young to remember nickle loaves of bread, <10¢ gasoline, 3 for a cent jawbreaker candies, and all the other wonderful things we had when dinosaurs roamed the land, and I was in elementary school.

DBSTrader2

I remember the penny candy store & gas at 37cents a gallon, when they gave away "car-coins" and tiger tails, etc, and I vaguely remember 5 and 10 cent Hershey bars................. but I STILL can't believe fractions of a cent tax tokens ever cost less to produce than the fraction they represented..... but I guess I'm wrong!