dug tokenz
lordmarcovan
Posts: 43,530 ✭✭✭✭✭
While discussing exonumia and locally-significant tokens with a friend, I was inspired to make this post about some of the interesting tokens I have dug up during my years of metal detecting. I thought a sort of review might be interesting. I would also welcome any additional information that can be discovered about any of these pieces. Sometimes they are more interesting to me than an old coin would be, and I do love my old coins. In many (or most) cases, they are rarer than the coins they circulated alongside. On one online token page recently, I read that the Montezuma Lumber Company pieces below are rated R-10, which sounds pretty rare to me?
I do not display modern exonumia such as arcade tokens in my "keeper" album- it gets thrown into the "wheat penny jar". These are the pieces I dubbed "keepers", interesting or worthy enough to keep in the Digger's Diary album. Some of the pictures aren't the greatest, but they're temporaries, as I struggle through imaging the past 16 years' worth of finds. Enjoy.
-RWS
DD-019- Shell Oil Presidential series- Washington (ca. 1950s-'60s); found 11/13/1993, Asheville, NC.
How odd and interesting that the first example of this widely-produced series I found happened to be #1 in the series!
DD-030- Beacon Mfg. Co. Cafeteria, Swannanoa, NC- Good For 25c (ca. 1930s); found 1/18/1994, Black Mountain, NC.
I met my old NC detecting mentor, Jim Dalton, while working at Beacon in the early 1990s. The plant, a textile mill that was
one of the world's larger manufacturers of blankets, shut down around 2002 and the building burned not long afterward.
The plant was in Swannanoa but I found the token in the neighboring town of Black Mountain. Jim offered me ten bucks
for it, and I refused. (And ten bucks was a lot of money to me in those hand-to-mouth, poverty-stricken days.)
DD-055- Montezuma Lumber Co., Montezuma, NC, Good For 5c (ca. early 1900s); found 8/4/1994, Asheville, NC.
One of three identical pieces found on the same site and same day. I later found a Montezuma 50c token (DD-072, below)
on another site. I never give away or sell my dug coins or tokens, but since I had three of these from the same day, I gave
one to my detecting buddy Jim Dalton and another to the late Herschel Sutton, a wise numismatic/exonumic mentor of mine.
DD-066- Shell Oil Presidential series- Madison (ca. 1950s-'60s); found 8/21/1994, Swannanoa, NC.
Chalk up another one for the Presidential series. I wonder how many lifetimes
it would take me to complete the series, using only my own detecting finds?
DD-072- Montezuma Lumber Co., Montezuma, NC, Good For 50c (ca. early 1900s); found 9/6/1994, Swannanoa, NC.
See the aforementioned Montezuma 5c piece, above, of which I found three in one afternoon.
These tokens apparently conformed to their coin counterparts in size, if not metallic content.
The 5c tokens were about nickel-sized, and this piece is approximately the size of a half dollar.
DD-110- Shell Oil Presidential series- Tyler (ca. 1950s-'60s); found 1/3/1995, Brunswick, GA.
Moved to Georgia in late 1994, and continued my digging of the Shell Oil presidential series.
They must have been everywhere Shell gas was pumped. I find them in coin bulk lots, too.
DD-114- "Swami" Good Luck token (ca. 1933); found 2/15/1995, Brunswick, GA.
I believe these were associated with the 1933 World's Fair somehow, or so I have been told. Found in one of
my favorite "hotspots", this piece was astonishingly shallow in the ground and remarkably well preserved.
If my finds from the immediate vicinity were any indicator, its lucky magic worked well for me. Note the swastikas,
which were still in use as a good luck symbol. Ironically, 1933 was the year the Nazis took power in Germany.
The swastika on the crystal ball is counterclockwise, as the ancient Zoroastrians rendered it, while the one on
the reverse of the token is clockwise, like the Nazi version. Though not really rare, this is a favorite find of mine.
DD-122- Eagle Tailoring Co., Jacksonville, FL, Good For $1.00 on Suit Order (ca. early 1900s); found 3/7/1995, St. Simons Island, GA.
Roughly dollar-sized, possibly from the first decade of the 1900s, when aluminum was a bit of a "premium" metal?
I suspect the hole is a later addition and not the way the token was issued. Perhaps the hole was a cancellation of sorts?
DD-123- Glynco Naval Air Station Officers' Club, Glynco, GA- Good For 50c In Drinks (ca. 1940s); found 3/9/1995, Brunswick, GA.
I dug an identical piece on the same site more than a decade earlier as a teenager, back when I neither kept good records of my finds,
nor the finds themselves, which all got lost when I moved off to college. For this reason, my recordkeeping of coin finds starts in 1992,
upon my return to the hobby. Parts of the old WW2-era NAS Glynco are now the site of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center and
local airport. I've heard that the blimp hangars at Glynco were some of the largest wooden buildings in the country, if not the world,
until they were demolished around 1971. Like the Montezuma Lumber 50c above, this piece roughly conforms to half dollar size.
DD-132- Royal Brand Suits "Award Of Merit" promotional token (ca. 1920s-'30s?); found 4/8/1995, Brunswick, GA.
Good boy! Your daddy bought one of our suits! A 1939 Mercury dime (DD-133) came up minutes
later, a few feet down the sidewalk. The same sidewalk strip produced a nice set of silver WW2
paratrooper's wings in 2007, proving that nobody ever "finds it all" in just one or two passes.
DD-135- Atlantic Shrimp Co., Brunswick (GA) and St. Augustine, FL- Good For "15" (weight tally? Ca. 1930s?); found 4/13/1995, Brunswick, GA.
A friend of mine found an identical token in 2007, a few blocks away. I did some checking in the library's Special Collection,
in the old city directories, but there were gaps in their collection. If I remember correctly, I believe the Atlantic Shrimp
Company was listed in the 1934 directory but not in the 1937.
DD-154- OK Vender- "Loaned For Amusement Only- gaming token(?)" (ca. 1930s-'40s?); found 10/4/1995, Brunswick, GA.
I believe this type of token is what was referred to as a "plug nickel" at the time, giving rise to the expression "not worth a
plug nickel", as folks would plug up the hole in these to bring them up to the proper weight for use in nickel vending machines.
DD-155- Oldsmobile "Rocket 88" token (ca. 1950s-'60s); found 10/17/1995, Brunswick, GA.
Roughly dollar-sized. I'll bet the car had fins. Found on a sidewalk strip adjacent to a car dealer's lot, not surprisingly.
DD-166- Georgia City Coaches, Brunswick, GA, transit token (ca. 1940s); found 6/7/1996, St. Simons Island, GA.
Found in the hardpan under the roadbed during paving repair, right near an 1898 Barber dime (DD-165).
This area had its boomtime during World War II, when our local shipyards built Liberty ships.
I think it is the only time Brunswick has had a public transportation system. It doesn't now.
DD-172- Orange Street School, 1c Lunch Check (octagonal, uniface, ca. early 1900s?); found 10/29/1996, Asheville, NC.
Back to my old Asheville diggin' grounds, for a visit. There is an Orange Street in Asheville, not too far from the old
house on Charlotte Street where I found the the token, but if there was ever a school there, it is long gone now.
DD-174- Wright & Gowen, St. Simons Mills, GA- Good For 5c In Merchandise (ca. 1873-1908); found 1/21/1997, St. Simons Island, GA.
Ironically, I have detected the most on Gascoigne Bluff, the very place where the St. Simons Mills were located from 1873 to 1908, but this
token was found on another part of the Island, where I found my first two coins from the 1700s. (Spanish half-reales: DD-161 & DD-162.)
DD-247- General Motors "Pontiac, Chief of the Sixes" token (ca. 1926); found spring-summer, 1999, Raleigh, NC.
I found this piece in my sister's front yard in Raleigh, during a visit. I was rather lax in my recordkeeping at the time.
I thought this was another addition to the "cars with fins" theme, from the '50s or so, but upon researching further,
I was surprised to discover that the first Pontiac six-cylinder car dubbed "Chief of the Sixes" rolled off the lines in 1926.
DD-255- University Drug Store, "One Glass Soda" (ca. late 1800s/early 1900s, uniface, incuse lettering); found summer-fall, 1999, Brunswick, GA.
This piece was found in a park that has been a great source of Indian Head cents, including some nice ones from
the 1880s, as well as an 1877-S dime (DD-266). It is obviously quite old, and I suspect it could be from the same era(?).
Note the initials "JK" scratched onto the blank reverse. Ol' J.K. really loved to slug down a sasparilla at the University Drugstore,
apparently. What's odd is that there's no university here. Whether there was a University Drug Store or not, I have yet to discover.
DD-264- Press & Radio Club, Atlanta, GA, 10c (ca. 1930s-'40s); found 10/31/2002, Sharpsburg, GA.
While my wife visited a friend in Atlanta, I drove down to Sharpsburg to visit my own friend, Blue Cole, for some detecting.
On an old vacant lot once occupied by a house that burned down in the 1950s, I was astonished to find a 1926-S Oregon Trail
commemorative half dollar (DD-263), only a couple of inches down. This token proved to be my only other noteworthy find, however.
It was in truly horrid, encrusted condition and I almost threw it in the "wheat penny jar" with the worthless modern tokens, but some
wirebrushing improved it this much, at least. Speaking of Wheat cents, I was surprised to see that not so much as a single one turned
up on that fine fall afternoon, but the commemorative half and this token were sweet Halloween "trick or treats", nonetheless.
DD-284- Green River Whiskey "Good Luck" token (ca. 1935); found 7/31/2005, Ridge Spring, SC.
I don't know if it is lucky to drink Green River Whiskey, but it is lucky to find their tokens! While we visited a nice old bed & breakfast inn,
the innkeepers graciously let me detect the yard. I found this token very near another old token (see below), around the base of an old
pine tree, so perhaps they were dropped by a child playing. A 1908 Indian cent (DD-283) was found not too far away, that same night.
A previous visit to the same yard in October 2003 had produced an 1893 Indian cent (DD-265). The innkeeper's husband took a liking to this,
so I bought him a nicer example online and had it shipped to them.
DD-285- Company M, 6th Infantry token- 5c (ca. late 1800s/early 1900s, octagonal); found 7/31/2005, Ridge Spring, SC.
Found the same night and under the same tree as DD-284, above, I suspect this piece is a bit older, though it was likely dropped
around the same time. I have a hunch it could be from the Spanish-American War era, and suspect it does not date much later than WW1.
I've been unable to find out much about it, though, short of the guess that it is a military post exchange or sutler's token of some kind.
DD-291- Georgia City Coaches, Brunswick, GA, transit token (ca. 1940s); found mid-October, 2006, Brunswick, GA.
Another example of the same type as DD-166, above. Interestingly, this was found on the same sidewalk strip and within a
few feet from the spot where I had found the Oldsmobile "Rocket 88" piece (DD-155, above), back in 1995. You can never get it
all in just a few passes, and old sites keep producing new finds, often surprisingly close to where goodies have turned up previously.
These tokens are relatively tiny, and are smaller than a dime, so it is no surprise that many of them ended up in the ground.
DD-298- Knights of Pythias 50th Anniversary medal (10-sided, 1914); found 1/10/2008, Brunswick, GA.
I was very pleased to find not only such an interesting medal, but a dated piece, at last! This find was also discovered
since the advent of my journal-keeping era, in which I now write about my outings in great detail. Read all about it here.
I do not display modern exonumia such as arcade tokens in my "keeper" album- it gets thrown into the "wheat penny jar". These are the pieces I dubbed "keepers", interesting or worthy enough to keep in the Digger's Diary album. Some of the pictures aren't the greatest, but they're temporaries, as I struggle through imaging the past 16 years' worth of finds. Enjoy.
-RWS
DD-019- Shell Oil Presidential series- Washington (ca. 1950s-'60s); found 11/13/1993, Asheville, NC.
How odd and interesting that the first example of this widely-produced series I found happened to be #1 in the series!
DD-030- Beacon Mfg. Co. Cafeteria, Swannanoa, NC- Good For 25c (ca. 1930s); found 1/18/1994, Black Mountain, NC.
I met my old NC detecting mentor, Jim Dalton, while working at Beacon in the early 1990s. The plant, a textile mill that was
one of the world's larger manufacturers of blankets, shut down around 2002 and the building burned not long afterward.
The plant was in Swannanoa but I found the token in the neighboring town of Black Mountain. Jim offered me ten bucks
for it, and I refused. (And ten bucks was a lot of money to me in those hand-to-mouth, poverty-stricken days.)
DD-055- Montezuma Lumber Co., Montezuma, NC, Good For 5c (ca. early 1900s); found 8/4/1994, Asheville, NC.
One of three identical pieces found on the same site and same day. I later found a Montezuma 50c token (DD-072, below)
on another site. I never give away or sell my dug coins or tokens, but since I had three of these from the same day, I gave
one to my detecting buddy Jim Dalton and another to the late Herschel Sutton, a wise numismatic/exonumic mentor of mine.
DD-066- Shell Oil Presidential series- Madison (ca. 1950s-'60s); found 8/21/1994, Swannanoa, NC.
Chalk up another one for the Presidential series. I wonder how many lifetimes
it would take me to complete the series, using only my own detecting finds?
DD-072- Montezuma Lumber Co., Montezuma, NC, Good For 50c (ca. early 1900s); found 9/6/1994, Swannanoa, NC.
See the aforementioned Montezuma 5c piece, above, of which I found three in one afternoon.
These tokens apparently conformed to their coin counterparts in size, if not metallic content.
The 5c tokens were about nickel-sized, and this piece is approximately the size of a half dollar.
DD-110- Shell Oil Presidential series- Tyler (ca. 1950s-'60s); found 1/3/1995, Brunswick, GA.
Moved to Georgia in late 1994, and continued my digging of the Shell Oil presidential series.
They must have been everywhere Shell gas was pumped. I find them in coin bulk lots, too.
DD-114- "Swami" Good Luck token (ca. 1933); found 2/15/1995, Brunswick, GA.
I believe these were associated with the 1933 World's Fair somehow, or so I have been told. Found in one of
my favorite "hotspots", this piece was astonishingly shallow in the ground and remarkably well preserved.
If my finds from the immediate vicinity were any indicator, its lucky magic worked well for me. Note the swastikas,
which were still in use as a good luck symbol. Ironically, 1933 was the year the Nazis took power in Germany.
The swastika on the crystal ball is counterclockwise, as the ancient Zoroastrians rendered it, while the one on
the reverse of the token is clockwise, like the Nazi version. Though not really rare, this is a favorite find of mine.
DD-122- Eagle Tailoring Co., Jacksonville, FL, Good For $1.00 on Suit Order (ca. early 1900s); found 3/7/1995, St. Simons Island, GA.
Roughly dollar-sized, possibly from the first decade of the 1900s, when aluminum was a bit of a "premium" metal?
I suspect the hole is a later addition and not the way the token was issued. Perhaps the hole was a cancellation of sorts?
DD-123- Glynco Naval Air Station Officers' Club, Glynco, GA- Good For 50c In Drinks (ca. 1940s); found 3/9/1995, Brunswick, GA.
I dug an identical piece on the same site more than a decade earlier as a teenager, back when I neither kept good records of my finds,
nor the finds themselves, which all got lost when I moved off to college. For this reason, my recordkeeping of coin finds starts in 1992,
upon my return to the hobby. Parts of the old WW2-era NAS Glynco are now the site of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center and
local airport. I've heard that the blimp hangars at Glynco were some of the largest wooden buildings in the country, if not the world,
until they were demolished around 1971. Like the Montezuma Lumber 50c above, this piece roughly conforms to half dollar size.
DD-132- Royal Brand Suits "Award Of Merit" promotional token (ca. 1920s-'30s?); found 4/8/1995, Brunswick, GA.
Good boy! Your daddy bought one of our suits! A 1939 Mercury dime (DD-133) came up minutes
later, a few feet down the sidewalk. The same sidewalk strip produced a nice set of silver WW2
paratrooper's wings in 2007, proving that nobody ever "finds it all" in just one or two passes.
DD-135- Atlantic Shrimp Co., Brunswick (GA) and St. Augustine, FL- Good For "15" (weight tally? Ca. 1930s?); found 4/13/1995, Brunswick, GA.
A friend of mine found an identical token in 2007, a few blocks away. I did some checking in the library's Special Collection,
in the old city directories, but there were gaps in their collection. If I remember correctly, I believe the Atlantic Shrimp
Company was listed in the 1934 directory but not in the 1937.
DD-154- OK Vender- "Loaned For Amusement Only- gaming token(?)" (ca. 1930s-'40s?); found 10/4/1995, Brunswick, GA.
I believe this type of token is what was referred to as a "plug nickel" at the time, giving rise to the expression "not worth a
plug nickel", as folks would plug up the hole in these to bring them up to the proper weight for use in nickel vending machines.
DD-155- Oldsmobile "Rocket 88" token (ca. 1950s-'60s); found 10/17/1995, Brunswick, GA.
Roughly dollar-sized. I'll bet the car had fins. Found on a sidewalk strip adjacent to a car dealer's lot, not surprisingly.
DD-166- Georgia City Coaches, Brunswick, GA, transit token (ca. 1940s); found 6/7/1996, St. Simons Island, GA.
Found in the hardpan under the roadbed during paving repair, right near an 1898 Barber dime (DD-165).
This area had its boomtime during World War II, when our local shipyards built Liberty ships.
I think it is the only time Brunswick has had a public transportation system. It doesn't now.
DD-172- Orange Street School, 1c Lunch Check (octagonal, uniface, ca. early 1900s?); found 10/29/1996, Asheville, NC.
Back to my old Asheville diggin' grounds, for a visit. There is an Orange Street in Asheville, not too far from the old
house on Charlotte Street where I found the the token, but if there was ever a school there, it is long gone now.
DD-174- Wright & Gowen, St. Simons Mills, GA- Good For 5c In Merchandise (ca. 1873-1908); found 1/21/1997, St. Simons Island, GA.
Ironically, I have detected the most on Gascoigne Bluff, the very place where the St. Simons Mills were located from 1873 to 1908, but this
token was found on another part of the Island, where I found my first two coins from the 1700s. (Spanish half-reales: DD-161 & DD-162.)
DD-247- General Motors "Pontiac, Chief of the Sixes" token (ca. 1926); found spring-summer, 1999, Raleigh, NC.
I found this piece in my sister's front yard in Raleigh, during a visit. I was rather lax in my recordkeeping at the time.
I thought this was another addition to the "cars with fins" theme, from the '50s or so, but upon researching further,
I was surprised to discover that the first Pontiac six-cylinder car dubbed "Chief of the Sixes" rolled off the lines in 1926.
DD-255- University Drug Store, "One Glass Soda" (ca. late 1800s/early 1900s, uniface, incuse lettering); found summer-fall, 1999, Brunswick, GA.
This piece was found in a park that has been a great source of Indian Head cents, including some nice ones from
the 1880s, as well as an 1877-S dime (DD-266). It is obviously quite old, and I suspect it could be from the same era(?).
Note the initials "JK" scratched onto the blank reverse. Ol' J.K. really loved to slug down a sasparilla at the University Drugstore,
apparently. What's odd is that there's no university here. Whether there was a University Drug Store or not, I have yet to discover.
DD-264- Press & Radio Club, Atlanta, GA, 10c (ca. 1930s-'40s); found 10/31/2002, Sharpsburg, GA.
While my wife visited a friend in Atlanta, I drove down to Sharpsburg to visit my own friend, Blue Cole, for some detecting.
On an old vacant lot once occupied by a house that burned down in the 1950s, I was astonished to find a 1926-S Oregon Trail
commemorative half dollar (DD-263), only a couple of inches down. This token proved to be my only other noteworthy find, however.
It was in truly horrid, encrusted condition and I almost threw it in the "wheat penny jar" with the worthless modern tokens, but some
wirebrushing improved it this much, at least. Speaking of Wheat cents, I was surprised to see that not so much as a single one turned
up on that fine fall afternoon, but the commemorative half and this token were sweet Halloween "trick or treats", nonetheless.
DD-284- Green River Whiskey "Good Luck" token (ca. 1935); found 7/31/2005, Ridge Spring, SC.
I don't know if it is lucky to drink Green River Whiskey, but it is lucky to find their tokens! While we visited a nice old bed & breakfast inn,
the innkeepers graciously let me detect the yard. I found this token very near another old token (see below), around the base of an old
pine tree, so perhaps they were dropped by a child playing. A 1908 Indian cent (DD-283) was found not too far away, that same night.
A previous visit to the same yard in October 2003 had produced an 1893 Indian cent (DD-265). The innkeeper's husband took a liking to this,
so I bought him a nicer example online and had it shipped to them.
DD-285- Company M, 6th Infantry token- 5c (ca. late 1800s/early 1900s, octagonal); found 7/31/2005, Ridge Spring, SC.
Found the same night and under the same tree as DD-284, above, I suspect this piece is a bit older, though it was likely dropped
around the same time. I have a hunch it could be from the Spanish-American War era, and suspect it does not date much later than WW1.
I've been unable to find out much about it, though, short of the guess that it is a military post exchange or sutler's token of some kind.
DD-291- Georgia City Coaches, Brunswick, GA, transit token (ca. 1940s); found mid-October, 2006, Brunswick, GA.
Another example of the same type as DD-166, above. Interestingly, this was found on the same sidewalk strip and within a
few feet from the spot where I had found the Oldsmobile "Rocket 88" piece (DD-155, above), back in 1995. You can never get it
all in just a few passes, and old sites keep producing new finds, often surprisingly close to where goodies have turned up previously.
These tokens are relatively tiny, and are smaller than a dime, so it is no surprise that many of them ended up in the ground.
DD-298- Knights of Pythias 50th Anniversary medal (10-sided, 1914); found 1/10/2008, Brunswick, GA.
I was very pleased to find not only such an interesting medal, but a dated piece, at last! This find was also discovered
since the advent of my journal-keeping era, in which I now write about my outings in great detail. Read all about it here.
0