I stopped in Saint Louis today and picked up some tokens that I've never seen before (along with some that are rare in my neck of the woods). Do you recognize any of these or have any additional info?
The Missouri paper sales tax tokens don't seem to have been preserved in any serious number, so I pounced on those. There were also a lot of saloon tokens for a place called Mae Bozi's Tavern, at 1631 E Mason, Springfield Ill. There were a few 10c tokens, but most were a slightly different die 25c denomination. Any idea what these date to? And did I find a rare cache, or are these common as dirt in the vicinity of Illinois? There were a couple of merchant tokens that I did closeups on (and flipped). Anyone know more about the following? 1) MP 5c 2) Harry Evers - Good for 5c In Trade (0434 scratched on back) 3) 2608 / Good for 5c in Trade 4) J.S. 5 / Haskell Enc Co. St. Louis
Mae Bozi's Tavern, on Mapquest 1631 E Mason, Springfield Ill http://mapq.st/Ojn33u The address puts it not far off from the downtown. Does anyone know of a resource to chart modern addresses onto historic maps? I'm curious as to how this location fit into the city at different times in its history. And a tool like that would be awfully handy for metal detecting... From the style of the token, I'd guess anywhere from 1900-1920: what do you think?
I found an interesting eHow article on how to gauge the age of casino chips: http://www.ehow.com/how_5600500_tell-las-vegas-casino-chips.html Anyone have a similar primer on trade / saloon tokens? What time period were 5c tokens common? 10c? 25c? I've also seen some in odd denominations (2.5c and 12.5c seem to be fairly common).
In my experience they tended to track drink prices. Of the tokens I have, the 5 cent ones are usually the earliest, dating from around 1890-1910. Btw, just to be clear, I am not an expert in these AT ALL. The only reason I own them is I bought a large lot of them once at an auction, (bored), and I have others I have accumulated from junk drawer purchases.
Sorry, George, I won't be of much help with those neat tokens, but if you have any old casino chips, I found the best resource for dating and identifying them is A Collector's Guide to Nevada Gaming Checks & Chips written by Howard & Kregg Herz and published by Whitman in 1995 (First Edition). Chris
Really? I very rarely come across them. That may be because I'm in Texas and they didn't travel as far as the zinc, resin, and plastic issues.
Anyone hear of Mae Bozi's Tavern? I haven't had much luck digging for it on Google, but was thinking it might be worth hitting old newspaper stacks in Illinois (or an online search of old articles). What is / were the major papers in the Springfield area?
I don't recall seeing this thread before. I may be able to help when I get home to my ref. books. It may take a few days though as the next couple are very busy for me.
