Shell's Mr. President Coin Game question

Discussion in 'Coin Chat' started by ARguy, Nov 30, 2010.

  1. ARguy

    ARguy Junior Member

    Remember Shell Oil's 1960's presidential coin game promotion?

    If so, does anyone remember what you would have won with a coin that said "Instant Winner"? I assume that different presidents represented different prize levels ????

    Found a couple in a box of nuts and bolts. I know they have no value now, but what could you have won in the contest?
     
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  3. green18

    green18 Unknown member Sweet on Commemorative Coins Supporter

    Possibly a cookie? Don Rickels....sorry for that. I can be so impudent at times. :)
     
  4. krispy

    krispy krispy

    I had a bunch of these and some from another promotion for Famous Americans. I sold them all off couple years back. Here's a couple images of some I had. Never knew what the promo was for other than collecting them:

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  5. bobbeth87

    bobbeth87 Coin Collector

    I have two complete sets of these tokens.
     
  6. blsmothermon

    blsmothermon Member

    Here's a pic of the original collection card. There were two different sets of coins, aluminum and bronze. The bronze set was an instant win prize.
    Preview_Image_1.jpg
     
  7. fetalinjury

    fetalinjury New Member

    shell coins anyone.......

    I have hundreds of these coins maybe as many as 10 sets

    are they worth keeping, or should i take them in to recycle with all my cans.....?
     
  8. blsmothermon

    blsmothermon Member

    eBay completed listings show that the aluminum ones sell for an average of .25 each. Sell 'em by the set on eBay, in my opinion. Welcome to CT!!!
     
  9. Alanstaubin

    Alanstaubin New Member

    Game board

    I have the original game board and app. 30 coins, what would you like to know?
     
  10. cladking

    cladking Coin Collector

    Surely you don't mean you have 30 different aluminum tokens.

    So far as I know most of the aluminum are very scarce to rare and some don't
    even exist. These were made in three different runs and the common tokens are
    all common in each different variety though a few are tough in the last variety.

    "Instant winners" recieved a complete bronze set and these are quite common.
    The aluminuminstant winner tokens are elusive but can be found with diligence.
     
  11. Trunker21

    Trunker21 New Member

    I actually have a States of The Union version of the Shell's Coin Game series. North Carolina to be exact. I can say that I am 99.5% certain it is Aluminum. Is the state set also from the 60s? I'm a little curious about the history and potential value but have had little luck with the history or exact pricing google searching it. (I just found this one on the ground a while back in my apartment parking lot. I kept it because I'm a bit of a coin/token pack rat.)
     
  12. ldhair

    ldhair Clean Supporter

    Anyone have an image of what the brass ones looked like?
     
  13. ldhair

    ldhair Clean Supporter

    Did Shell do this one?
    [​IMG]
     
    coinzip and Mickey in PDX like this.
  14. Conder101

    Conder101 Numismatist

    Maybe for the low value instant winners, but I doubt too many people decided not to redeem the $1,000 instant winners and I don't think they would have made a bunch of extras of that one and just not sent them out.
     
  15. cladking

    cladking Coin Collector


    I wasn't aware there were any instant winners other than one single president. Each group
    of presidents which could be redeemed for a prize included at least one very difficult to find
    one with a tiny mintage. I've never seen one of these nor heard of anyone who has other
    than a small winner back in 1968. Many of the groups also had a difficult to find president
    and these are still available because they weren't much good without the "stopper".

    It always seemed to me that many people at the time didn't know the difference between a
    stopper and a common token so there might be some of these stoppers floating around.
    Since there are so few collectors it always seemed possible that I might locate it. But the
    fact seems to be that people who paid no attention to them also did nothing to set them
    aside or have thrown them away at some point since.

    You can put together interesting sets of these with the varieties. Finding nice examples
    can be much more difficult than it seems they should be. But I seriously doubt that there
    will ever be anything close to a complete set. I'm guessing the company diligently destroyed
    all the stoppers that were redeemed and even the instant winners. It's not impossible that
    completed sets and series are locked up in a safe or executive desk but the odds
    just keep dropping every year. These are not the sort of thing that one would expect to
    surface after so long. The Franklin mint probably made a set number of each stopper and
    then the dies were destroyed. These tokens would have been carefully monitored at least
    until they were shipped to the individual filling stations (if not beyond).

    I do agree that anybody who was working on these sets would have known which were the
    stoppers and would have quickly redeemed them. These things were everywhere in '68
    and '69 because lots of people didn't wait to throw them out. Most people who used Shell
    gas had a token or two in the car at least until they cleaned it next. If one were to try
    to accumulate them at the time he could easily have gotten many hundreds of them in
    short order.
     
    softmentor likes this.
  16. cladking

    cladking Coin Collector

    No. This isn't it.

    You can almost tell by the fact that it isn't Unc. Many of the Shell versions are
    spotted or otherwise unattractive but they are almost all Unc or high end AU.
    The Franklin Mint tokens have a little more modern design and most have the
    lettering partially obscured by the bust.

    There are at least four series of these medals issued without attribution from
    the 20th century. I believe your's is circa 1933. If so these came with a couple
    extra medals for the capitol and was also issued in both bronze and aluminum.
     
  17. swagge1

    swagge1 Junior Member

    Awesome thread! I have been working for Shell (Chemicals Division) for the past 8 years and I didn't even know that such tokens existed. I guess it was way before my time LOL
     
  18. tommyc03

    tommyc03 Senior Member

    I recall riding my bicycle to the local gas station during the time these were being issued. Still have a few. I seem to remember their were some prizes and I think one of them was a six pack of Yoo Hoo chocolate drink. Another may have been a baseball style cap, but regardless there were prizes for completeing the set.
     
  19. cladking

    cladking Coin Collector

    After the "Mr President" series there were several other series by both Shell and Sunoco.

    The "States of the Union" game was around 1971. Shell's "Famous Facts and Faces" was one of the more artistic and interesting ones but these tend to be harder to find.

    There also appears to have been a version in Great Britain.
     
  20. ldhair

    ldhair Clean Supporter

    Thanks cladking.
     
  21. mikenoodle

    mikenoodle The Village Idiot Supporter

    I still have one of the brass sets!
     
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