missouri tax recipt coin

i dont know if this is is right part of forum

i found a coin that had on both sides around the edge saying missouri tax recipt in the middle was a little thing in the shape of missouri

i have now idea what it is

will take photos if you guys think its neccesary

 

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It's a Missouri Tax Token. I'm in Arizona, and I have a few that Arizona made a while ago. If I remember correctly, it's a receipt of sorts for having turned in one's taxes or something of the sort. Some people collect them, and I know I've got a bunch of them, which are pretty nifty. Unfortunately, they're not worth much of anything. But hey, it's a nifty piece of history!

~AJM

 

Basically, for a while some people were concerned that fractional tax rates would casue people to overpay when the fractions of a cent were rounded up, so most states produced tax tokens that could be used to pay the fractions of a cent left over. These were made in various materials, have seen brass, aluminum, plastic, and even cardboard. After a while people decided that the amount rounded off, as long as it was done at the end, wouldn't add up to a significant amount to worry about (and half the time the rounding would be in their favor anyway) so they just quit producing the tokens. I have quite a few myself from Washington and Oklahoma that my grandmother saved. Most were produced from the 1940's until the early 1960's.

They aren't worth a whole lot because they were produced in huge numbers and there isn't much collector's interest in them, at least not right now. If you want to collect these you can do so very cheaply.

 

I think only 12 states had these tokens...I collected them untill I had one from every state with many many types....
I don't think they are really worth alot but are really cool!
CWtokenman is the man that would know for sure....post photos if you can.

Speedy

 

ok thanks guys

 

Speedy, you're not done yet. There were 26 states for which to collect sales tax items. The list (and time frame for tax token/script/coupon usage) are as follows:

Alabama (1937-1947)
Arizona (1937-1946)
California (1933)
Colorado (1935-1945)
Illinois (1933-1945)
Indiana (1963)
Iowa (1934)
Kansas (1937-1939)
Kentucky (1934-1937)
Louisiana (1936-1938)
Michigan (1935-1937)
Minnesota (1967) these were anti-tax tokens, not state issues
Mississippi (1936-1952)
Missouri (1935-1961)
Nebraska (1938)
New Mexico (1935-1949) the 5 mill black fiber is particularly sought after, and broke the $100 price barrier in November of 1982.
New York (1965) these were anti-tax tokens, not state issues.
North Carolina (middle 30s to early 50s) exact dates are not known - script use only (no tokens)
Ohio (1935-1961)
Okalhoma (1936-1961)
Oregon (1968-1985) these are all anti-tax tokens, no state issues
Pennsylvania (sales tax coupons exist from the mid 30s, but Pa did not implement its first sales tax until 1953) No official tax stamps or coupons were issued by the Commonwealth. These are usually rare.
Texas (1960-mid 60s) these were all pro or anti-tax tokens, no state issues
Utah (1937-1950)
Washington (1935-1951)
West Virginia (1934-1955) coupons and script


In my haste, some of my years may be off a bit. I scanned thru one of the ref. books and tried to get the years of token issues. I fear I may have gotten a few years during which legislation was passed, or tokens ordered, and tokens may not have been distributed/used for another year or two. Some cases have tokens being valid for a year or two after legislation was passed to end the program, but ample time was allowed for redemption. I suppose I may have overlooked a date or two as well. If anyone wishes me to double check info for a given state, I will be glad to do so.

Many of these token programs were short-lived because of public outcry/resistance. Missouri had to revise (but not eliminate) their token legislation once after only three days had passed from issuance of a token.

Three possibilites are listed which could match the OP's item. All are 23mm in diameter and made of zinc. All three types are very common, and worth very little, as is typical with most tax tokens.

S7 - Denomination of "1", map of Missouri is plain (smooth) (1937-1942) mintage of 66,900,000 by the Scovill Manufacturing Company
S8 - Denomination of "1", map of Missouri is checkered (1937-1942) mintage of 93,500,000 by the Osbourne Register Company
S9 - Denomination of "5", typically with a center hole. Examples without the hole are a result of a manufacturing error rather than a die variety.

There are minor variations of the above three as well.

 

Tax tokens have all the attributes of coins which ultimately led to their demise. The secret service told the states they couldn't issue coins. These were made by the state government and used as cash. Most of them are still quite common today but you might be surprised how tough some are and how tough they can be in unc or gem. Despite trading thousands of these with other collectors only about half my collection is unc and very few are gem. There are still numerous issues I need, too.

Missouri also issued the "bottle cap" tokens. These were 1/10 and 1/2 cent tokens printed on milk bottle caps. These are harder to find than many and uncs are elusive. Illinois also had several issued by towns and counties.

You can put together a very impressive set for only a few dollars. They wholesale at 4c each.

 

Hot dog!!!!....The list I found online said 12
Oh well...this will be fun trying to see what ones I'm missing and if I can find them!
I hear that the Paper Tokens are alittle harder to find sometimes...I bought a lot of Tax Tokens off ebay for a few bucks and there were 3 in there!

Speedy

 

Well I've printed out this list---I'm going to have to get you someday for showing me a longer list

I'm glad I don't have that one....I got the 5 mil black plastic one....It doesn't seem that a token could be worth that much....I know there are some that are worth many many times that ammount but it just seems weird that tokens are worth something sorry token collectors.!!!

Speedy

 

Smile when you say that pardner. In the past two weeks I've spent $725 to get five Conder tokens I need. (OK 9 other pieces I didn't need came along for the ride. But I paid $210 for one of those ones that was just coming for the ride, and I'm tickled to death with it.) I have paid as much as $350 for one of those Conder tokens. (The record is $60,000.) Some tokens are HIGHLY valuable! Technically the Brasher doubloon is a token.

 

Ok....it looks like I better repent of my ways and go sit in the corner!!!

Speedy

 

All it takes to make a collectible valuable is demand and little availability.

There are lots of coins, tokens, and medals that are scarce or rare and usually command tiny premiums. Now with the amount of information that has been accumulated and distributed, it seems there is increasing awareness of and demand for many things that were overlooked in the past. While Conder tokens have long had some interest there are lots that are quite scarce or rare.

I have to believe the tax coins are an emerging collectible as well. These make an interesting, historical, and challenging set that can be acquired cheaply. Even if prices go up remarkably it will still be possible to acquire great collections for a small amount of money since supply of many of these simply dwarf any potential demand.

 

Well, I would hate to have you collecting under a premise of bad information. if you ever complete that list Speedy, we will get you onto something tough like Beard Tax tokens.


Weird that tokens are worth something??? :desk: You hurt my feelings Speedy, JK. Compare values for common well circulated Civil War tokens with equivalent condition common Indian Head cents, and tell me which one you would rather have a pocket full of. I think the scarcer issues would make tokens look even more favorable.

Even common relatively modern tokens often possess nice value. Merchant tokens with a location (as most are) even from the 40s, 50s, 60s often sell in the $4-$5 and on up dollar range (not counting s/h). These tokens typically were for values of 1 to 25 cents. While those values may not sound like much, how many pieces of comparable regular coinage do you think you could sell in that price range? While it is true that some types of tokens can be had for literally the "dime a dozen", other types tend to sustain higher values than much of the regular coinage of the same era.

Other types, such as Bryan money (1896 & 1900) and batteries (1870s), and the majority (but by no means all) of Alaska merchant tokens are hard to find as nice examples for less than $100.

 

Now don't you guys try to talk me into collecting tokens....I'm already in over my head with US......and even though I don't let it out....my world collection is too larger for me already!

Speedy

 

My father had a job during the 1930's which required him to drive around the US west.
He had a collection of these sales tax tokens from various states.
I live in California and I believe it did not issue any.

 

I have a small collection of civil war, hard times, and Canadian bank tokens. From time to time I'll buy something if it appears to be in above average condition; but I've never had to spend more than $20 on any single one. The more common Canadian bank tokens are dirt cheap, about $5-$7 for nice specimens. It's slightly amazing that the tokens can be so old, well preserved, and relatively scarce compared to many US coins and still be so affordable.

But sadly, this seems to be changing, especially since the Redbook is giving space to them and driving up the asking price.

 

Willieboyd, I checked the California section more closely, and you are correct as far as the state issued items, as none are known to exist, save for a single pane of five "California" sales tax coupons. But those coupons were ordered from the Globe Ticket Company of Philadelphia at the request of Clark Morrow of Santa Monica, Ca, back in the early 30s. Since he was hoping to profit by becoming a supplier of such coupons to the state, these coupons are considered as fantasies.

California had considerable turmoil in enacting state taxation, and merchants from the North and South of the state could not seem to agree on how it should be done, and many complaints were directed at the legislators after taxation laws were passed.

While true that no official California sales tax tokens or coupons exist, there are a variety of items that were local/privately issued and essentially functioned in the same capacity as a state issued item would have. Many merchants of inexpensive items were frustrated that no tax was to be collected on sales of less than 15 cents, but yet they were required to submit to the state an amount of tax that was based on their total sales, hence they were required to return taxes that they could not collect.

It does sound like Ca. came very close to issueing tokens from the following excerpt:

"Difficulties continued. In September 1933, negotiations between state tax authorities and merchant representatives ended with an agreement that the state would issue its own metal tokens, to be called "merchant money". These tokens were envisioned to be made of an "inexpensive metal" and to bear the face value of 1/8c, the tax on a 5 cent purchase. In deference to the Constitution's reservation of the right of coinage to the Federal Government, these tokens were not to bear either the name of the State of California or its great seal; nor were they to be guaranteed value in trade. Tokens were expected to be ready by mid-October.

Discussions were immediately begun with officials at the San Francisco Mint for the production of "merchant money". These tokens were to bear the inscription "Good for sales tax on a 5 cent purchase". Later in September an octagonal shape (to distinguish the tokens from "real" money) and aluminum composition were agreed upon, in addition to a reverse legend reading "Not redeemable in cash or trade". No patterns of such tokens are known to have been produced (although some fantasies were produced in 1973).

A collector of sales tax tokens could collect the local/private sales tax tokens and coupons for California, of which there are 9 pages of listings. Thanks for asking, so clarification could be made. I tried to clarify such things in my first listing, but I admit my error in not catching this one.

 

Were these literally printed on milk bottle caps? Were they used on milk bottles? How did that work?

I have a number of zinc tokens from MO. I've also got some plastic ones - red and green.

 

The company that printed them made milk bottle caps and printed them to order for various dairys. These tokens were never used as bottle caps but could have been since they had everything including the little pull tab. I believe there were only four major types; An orange 5 mil with and without printing on the back and the same thing on the blue 1 mil tokens. None of these is very common but they can be located cheaply with a little searching.

 

You might need to explain "milk bottle caps" a lot of the younger people here probably have no idea what a milk bottle cap was or what they looked like.