Does anyone know anything about this token? Anyone ever heard of C tavern or how old this is? much appreciate.
Most of these are Minnesota amusement tokens from the '20's and 30's and list for only about a quarter each. This one is a little tougher since I don't have it. If you're still interested I'll look it up for you.
I doubt if this helps any, but I checked on some encased cents with the letter "C" and "Tavern". 1. Cookies Tavern ( Beatty ) no state mentioned. 2. Cliffs Tavern ( Vancouver ) ?? 3. Caroline's Tavern ( Seattle ) There was nothing with a plain C then Tavern...
I hate looking these up since I forget how each time. As I suspected it is Minnesota (W St Paul) and is listed as 960 CHE and valued at 25c. It says the reverse is the same and it's made of nickel brass. 25c makes it a scarce token. There are no similar tokens listed. Most of these were used in the 1920's and 1930's. Minnesota has a disproportionate share of all issues. I suppose the salesman there was more active and more persuasive. Almost none of these are dated but usually turn up with material from that era. They were used in nickolodians and in the sorts of machines found in bars and taverns.
In case you're wondering scarce probably means around 50 known. (I don't have one) With tokens like this the number known can change suddenly as hundreds come on the market if the original order is found. Most tokens of this sort were ordered 1000 at a time and will be distinct from reorders since dies were not retained. The tokens were issued to customers in many imaginitive ways. Sometimes they were issued at full value (usually 5c) in change or sold at a small discount. They operated machines which dispensed gum or entertainment or just about anything. A staggering number of the issues do not survive at all; not even a single specimen. This was the result of the proprieter intentionally destroying the entire order he had on hand because he feared they would come into the possession of someone who would redeem them. This meant only those that were outstanding could survive and the attrition on these is staggering. Who keeps expired coupons? I'd guess there are nio surviving examples of about 60% of all issues. Many are rare or unique because of the extremely low survival rates. There are thousands of issues with 600 to 1000 surviving. Higher numbers tend to be unc and lower numbers tend to be circulated, sometimes heavily. There are few collectors of these and they are poorly documented. It's a shame how much modern coins, tokens, and medals are overlooked.
I think there's only one book. Video arcade, pinball, slot machine and other amusement tokens of north america; Alpert and Smith -1984
This thing isn't really hard to use if you remember the quick identifier is in the FRONT. If you've used other token books you'll pick it up very fast. If not it's easy enough to learn.
