I dont know if there are any token or medal collectors on this site, so if anyone can at least direct me in the right direction to find out more about these tokens and medals would be great! CCMS Life of Christ series sterling silver metal CCMS Life of Christ series sterling silver metal Bluegill Bar, Birchwood WI 25 cents in trade HJ Heikkila Shoes and hats "Good for 10 cents with pair shoe" J.M. & co "2 1/2" S.R. Grain Leland Michican "good for 5 cents in trade"
I'm not into medals, but I should be able to provide some info on the tokens. My Wisconsin token book does not have an abundance of information, but your Bluegill Bar token is listed. It is the 2nd listing of 7 for Birchwood, which is in Washburn County. Your token should be 29mm in diameter and made of aluminum. That merchant also issued a 5 cent token, also made of aluminum, with a diameter of 23mm. The second token is a little tougher to id, not knowing a city or state of origin. I did some searching for H.J. Heikkila on the internet without success. Same for a search of Heikkila coupled with Lumbermen's Clothing. The third one is even tougher, with just initials to go on. Struck out again on my internet searches. This one is reminescent of fantasy octagon 2 1/2 cent tokens supposedly from the Civil War era. S.R. Gain is the only merchant listed for Leland, Mich. in my 1987 Reference. This merchant issued 4 varieties, and your token is the third one in the list. The size should be 28mm and be made of aluminum. The second one listed is very similar to yours, except it has a propellor below Gain's name instead of the design. The other two are 21mm round, brass pieces. All four were issued for 5c in trade, and all were valued at $3.00 (25 years ago). The city of Leland has been assigned the town number of 572. The id number for your token is MI 572G1C. dbruce, my internet search for your tokens only found others looking for information, but no one was able to assist them. I will have to dig out my maverick reference and see if I can find any info on these unknowns. If I find anything, I will post back here. Sorry I couldn't be of more assistance.
Thanks for the post token man, I didn't even know there were books on tokens.. Much less this much info! Any thoughts on values?
There are many reference books about tokens - I have over 220 titles in my exonumia library. Actually, the Michigan and Wisconsin books are a little skimpy on info IMO. Some of my books provide rather detailed histories of the business/merchants, and occasionally even have related photos. Token values can fluctuate a great deal, especially on sites such as ebay, depending upon the bidders that have an interest in a token. Often, mintages of tokens are rather low, but frequent small collector bases can keep prices low even for rare pieces. Some types of tokens are considered common if as few as 100 pieces are known to exist. I write all of that as background info so that you can realize many tokens seldom are put up for sale, sometimes decades between offerings. As a result, there are very few tokens price guides, and most of the ones that do exist are terribly out of date. All I can offer is my personal (conservative) opinion as to their value. Bluegill Bar (corroded) $3-$5, Heikkila (damaged) $2-$4. This may appeal to lumber token collectors, whose tokens generally bring higher prices than many other types of tokens. J.M. & Co. $3-$5, most of whose appeal is the octagon shape and odd denomination. S.R. Gain $20-$25 as Leland is a single merchant town, anyone collecting by Michigan towns needs one of Gain's tokens. The 1987 ref. listed this token at $3, at a time when many similar tokens could be purchased for well under a dollar, so this one is obviously a desirable token. I hope that helps.
