I've recently developed an interest in historical exonumia pertaining to my hometown of Benicia, CA. Exhaustive research tells me at least several dozen known merchant, military tokens and locally produced commemorative items exist. Many are quite elusive but I've had some limited success on Ebay. For those that have specific exomunismatic (is that even a word?) interests, where are you finding what you're looking for?
What I do find, which hasn't been much, is off Ebay. The correct term is Exonumia. British call it Paranumismatica.
My Florida LCS gets things like that with old accumulations of silver coins. He throws them in a box to be picked by anyone interested. About $2/handful. I let him see any foreign silver but he always says just keep it with the handful.
eBay is the most likely place to find what you want. If you want rare tokens you'll need either lots of luck or lots of patience. Coin shops and coin shows are sometimes successful. Especially if the shop or show is in the area your target token(s) were originally used. Buying duplicates from someone who collects the same kinds of tokens as you is a great way of finding what you want, but those connections can be difficult to make. Also local antique shops. Some of the greatest finds come from those.
Don't waste your time on Ebay. It might randomly come up occasionally, but you can't count on it. For this sort of hyper-local stuff, you need to go to the source. Go to local coin shows. Talk to old-timers. Visit the actual places and ask if they have any.
Local coin shows is a great suggestion, will do! Visiting actual places is another matter, I'd love to and am right in town, but most of these places are either no longer in existence or their items have become long since obsolete.
Sometimes eBay is the only place to get certain tokens. Tokens often get distributed all across the country and there might not be any of the tokens you're looking for anywhere near their place of origin. Sometimes entire hoards of a certain token is bought by one person in a distant state.
I got the top one yesterday and the Indian the day before that, buying tokens for me is my new addiction and I've been hooked for years!
I found some esoteric local tokens back in my detecting days. Of course if you were to look up Brunswick, Georgia on Token Catalog, most of the listings you see would be elongated coins produced by this guy. (You've got one on the way to you in the mail, BTW, @vintagemintage.) Also- I have no idea if "exonumismatic" is a real word or not, but if not, it should be. I've used it myself a time or two.
