A lady came into the store tonight and didn't have enough money to pay for her cigarettes. She pulled this coin/token out of her purse and I told her I'd give her 50 cents for it. What on earth is it? One side says "Oklahoma Semi-Centennial Exposition", "Arrows To Atoms", "June 14 to July 7" and "1907 1957". The other side says "Liberty" in large letters and "National Bank and Trust Company Oklahoma City". What do I have? Is it worth the money I paid for it?
I'm thinking Oklahoma became a state in 1907. It's a medal. Probably worth a dollar to someone in OK.
It's not unusual for businesses participating in the anniversary celebrations of a city or state to contract for the production of medals like this. Most often, they are given away free of charge as an advertising promotion. Chris
Back in the 50's everything was atoms and to the future! I sure if you look up that celebration you will find a lot of the theme talk centered around the future and hope of the atom curing all problems that were faced by us at that time. One is for sale for about $6.00. great video about the show and what went on and the theme of atoms for peace along with how far the state had come in 50 years. You got a keeper, or ya owe her another pack of smokes Very nice pick up, even if it ends up being a pocket piece for the .50
There were some similar ones made for the centennial in Kansas - silver dollar sized and in silver and they are wonderfully designed.
The city of Tulsa buried a 1957 Plymouth that year in a vault, the car was to be awarded when dug up in 2007 to the person closest to guessing the population of the city that year - the guy that was closest died in 1979 but left the prize to his then 93 year old niece in 2007. The car was unearthed and was unfortunately all rusted out from the vault's seals giving out and moisture seeping in.
I remember that when they opened it up. It was on the cable news channels. best laid plans of mice and men as they say. the car was a real disaster.
I had just moved to Tulsa when the Belvedere fiasco happened. They really should have put it into a concrete building above the ground. Burying it was really stupid. Those '57 Chrysler products were notorious for rusting out anyway, and putting it underground made it much worse.
Oh man, what a disaster. That car still has a beautiful shape though, I'd love to have it myself. That's a pretty cool coin though. I don't ever remember seeing them floating around when I was there, so lucky find/trade.
This coin (and similar ones) was issued by the State of Oklahoma. Some were stamped for Oklahoma City, Tulsa and possibly for one other City. The ones which I understand went to Oklahoma City were the Arrows to Atoms; the ones which went to Tulsa were "Teepees to Towers". I never saw one before with a private business stamped onto the coin. I would guess that the bank got special permission to stamp their name on the coins. I worked for Tulsarama while attending the University of Tulsa. The Tulsa Chamber of Commerce could not finish paying us (or didn't) and so they let me have the rest of the Teepees to Towers coins, when Tulsarama was over. They were the same ones who buried the car, which later had rusted out. Edited. Terry, Please read the rules on buying/selling/trading for this forum, and the stickies ( first post) in each of the subforums. Also please use private messaging to correspond so email or personal info is not given, as internet robots collect and use such info. Welcome to the Forum, Jim
They are worth about $1.00 each but that's in Oklahoma. This is not the proper place to try to sell them.
Terry, your post did not run over, I edited the other parts out as it does not conform with the rules of the forum. Also you need 10 posts before you can advertise a buy/sell/ or trade item. Read the part in red in the post 2 above and comply. Thanks Jim The Rules
