Well, this was an intestesting find.. (+ explanation of the token)

kiyote

This has been a good run for me lately! My first ring, my first foreign coin, my second wheatie ('52) and now this...



Cool token, right? Especially since I'm a Leo. What about the other side, you say? It shows an unspeakable act!

My only disappointment is that I thought I had found a genuine brothel token, but it's just a novelty token. I wish I hadn't scraped the edge recovering it!

EDIT: These were used for peep shows, apparently, where there were laws against establishments taking cash for the girlie shows.

kevinstang

That is a cool find, might make a nice pocket piece for you since your a Leo as well.

ricko

Very nice... congratulations.. Cheers, RickO

CROCKofCOINS

wow...you got a BIG one there :-|

Jerry

lordmarcovan

Very cool indeed- like you were meant to have it. It'll bring luck, you can be sure of that.

Funny- I just posted a review of all of my past token finds.

kiyote

I've heard these were used for peep shows where there were laws that peep show operators couldn't take money for a show, so they'd sell these tokens instead.

I'm... going to go wash my hands again.

lordmarcovan

Oh, the other side is that risque, huh?

It does look pretty dirty. DIRT dirty, that is.

demodigger

those "peeps" are quite common in the SF parks. i dug around 10 in one of the smaller parks. somewhat nasty, when you think of where they've been

ricko

How about PM'ing the other side?? Cheers, RickO

lordmarcovan

Curiosity DOES arise, doesn't it.

unknowncomic

Sorry I didnt mean to hijack the thread Who is the token expert here? I posted this over on the us coin forum but want an expert to look at it . I'm trying to find a value for it for a friend. I know he wont send it in to be graded.
Thanks for any help guys.

kiyote

Ehh, we're all adults here.

R-Rated other side of the token...

It's better than the unpopular "Connect with a Cancer" token, that has a crab on one side.

davbec

Oh! I get it! They're conjoined twins.
Ha!Ha!

CoinMiner1

Great Find!

I purchased a large lot of these a couple years ago and have been fascinated with their story. Apparently other folks are too b.c. I receive a fair amount of interest in these tokens via folks emailing about them. Just had a guy in Chicago ask me about a token (different type) he detected in chicago land recently. And, they sell pretty well on ebay.

Here’s my sketch story on them:
---------
We've received a number of emails interested in and inquiring about the exotic/erotic tokens listed here. Erotic Tokens or Brass Checks (or cheques) were most recently (typically) used by entertainment emporiums as ‘good for’ some service, typically an entry to a show.
Good for tokens, even ones for erotic service, have been around for many centuries. The Romans called them Spintriae

See some examples here:

http://www.antiquanova.com/erotictokens.htm

The Romans produced about 13 distinct and different styles of these erotic tokens, their exact use has not been written down for our benefit, and one can only speculate regarding their particular use or value. The reverse of these tokens typically had a roman numeral. Modern erotic tokens have incorporated these designs; often the obverse of the modern token is one of the thirteen original designs and the reverse represents one sign of the zodiac - a fitting pattern since the zodiac has twelve symbols and well matches the number of the 13 original obverse designs.

Erotic tokens are just a subset of “good for” token. These chits substituted for currency. In many boom towns on the frontier actual coinage was in short supply. Hence, merchants would use issue tokens good for trade in their store. These also served as coupons and advertising. Also, use of privately issued coinage would enable the merchant to minimize or even evade paying taxes. Brothels have always been a good place to launder money for services and avoid the taxman. The IRS actually operated a brothel that it took from Joe Conforte for tax evasion, once in the 1980s and once in the 1990s. Tokens tell a fascinating tale of mercantilism.

I have one brothel token and have seen many more. Eventually the brothels disappeared from most towns (except in Nevada) and the tokens lived on through use in the peep show machines of the early 1900s, and later, the adult bookstores. Beginning in the early 1980's the bookstores began replacing machines that accepted tokens with machines that only accepted dollar bills. Hence, the use of erotic tokens has stopped, by and large, and are therefore no longer being produced and have become obsolete.

A little bit more info on my site if you want to know more (bottom part of page).
http://www.coinmine.com/Inventory/inventory_tokens.htm

Cheers.

kiyote

Coinminer, thanks for the link and alla the info!