Let's see your exonumia!

I think I’ve got the picture thing straight so here’s an interesting piece I picked up a couple weeks ago. I’m hoping acetone might help the black spots but a little hesitant to mess with it.
I like that it’s numbered 250, kind of a low number and also a round number.




From Numista :

Obverse
Crowned male bust l., to l. 1803, to r. 1903; above, around Souvenir Coin of Admission; below, on bust Saint Louis; beaded border. HK-305 see http://www.so-calleddollars.com/Events/Louisiana_Purchase_Exposition.html

Lettering: SOUVENIR COIN OF ADMISSION; 1803 1903; SAINT LOUIS

Reverse
Relief map of U.S. showing extent of Louisiana Territory, above is spread-winged eagle atop twin draped flags; two seated female figures below map with oval seal between, containing serial number of individual coin; to l. 19, to r. 04; above all, around Louisiana Purchase Souvenir Coin Co. Saint Louis; beaded border. SEE http://www.so-calleddollars.com/Events/Louisiana_Purchase_Exposition.html

Lettering: LOUISIANA PURCHASE SOUVENIR COIN CO. SAINT LOUIS; 1904

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

I don't think acetone will hurt it. I had to use some on a few brass tokens that had PVC residue on them. After the acetone I used Verdi-Care and the token took on a slightly darker tone. Overall I considered it an improvement.

 

here is another version

 

The more I think about it the more I'm convinced your Shemya token is military, not civilian, Jack.

In the 2000 census there were 180 military personnel at the station, but only 27 civilians on the island. Granted, there may have been more years ago, but on an island of only 3 or 4 square miles would there be any reason to have a civilian run Club 365? Maybe it was more of a challenge coin to tell the world that the base was alert and ready to engage at any time.

One thing is sure. Since the name of the base was changed to Eareckson Air Station in 1993, your token is at least that old.

Bruce

 

Seems very reasonable Bruce. I had the same thoughts about "Club 365" being a reference to readiness/observation since it was an early warning station. I wish I could learn more about it like who issued it and when. Someone should compile a reference...

 

I have spent the day photographing/editing my tokens and updating my catalog. I have taken over 160 photos and have about 11 tokens left to edit. Out of my 134 overseas tokens almost all of them are photographed! Sadly, looking over them I found another fake. Look at the post below for relevant information previously discussed:

Here's the coin:



In hand this coin immediately feels off, likely because this coin had been sanded smooth. I believe the sanding was done to hide the weird crosshatching effect in the fields. The legends are mushy, and there are visible pits. This token is not listed in the standard references in this denomination. Also there is evidence of a seam on the rim, but it has been heavily sanded as well, however it's not as bad as my other fake from Vietnam. Click the picture for the large version.

 

Here is one with the copper skin missing

 

Looks like a dime.

 

Not being a coin collector, and after reading your post and looking at some pocket change I think you are right.

 

Went to the Franklin Institute to see the MARVEL Exhibit and couldn't help myself passing the penny machine

 

As of this morning, I've imaged all but 7 of my overseas tokens! That's 125 ready to go! Next I'm going to tackle my stateside ones but I'll be breaking them into smaller chunks and first up will be Texas. Lots of bases and tokens from Texas, in fact as of right now I have 72 that need imaging. Here's a few tokens that I thought came out pretty well:






I really liked the oval shape of the above token from Nagoya AFB, Japan.


I wish I had paid more attention to this token from Bitburg AB, Germany because I would have oriented the reverse in such a way to make it easier to read. Nearly 59 years ago someone stamped a date on the reverse which appears to be "30 Sep 1960".


The brass and brightly colored tokens fared the best in my shooting conditions. I struggled with the bright aluminum issues and made some of them look worse than they were. I will re-shoot them one day.

 

I think I posted this before but did not realize the significance of the first medal struck at the Denver mint until I was reading my latest pickup; the 2019 large print spiral bound Red Book...

 

According to one of the elongated books I have there are 100's of of the versions of this prayer

 

@BRandM - JAFB was Johnson Air Base, Japan. I can only speculate why this token has "JAFB" because standard naming convention was to use Air Base for overseas locations with Aor Force Base used stateside. I suspect it was an error by the person who ordered it or whoever made it. Even the name of the base is a little strange considering it's location, but I'll get into that later today.

 

2 Merchant tokens from the town I live in ...

 

I had some time today and was able to image many Texas tokens! I completed 54 of 78. Here are a few of my favorites today:









Several of these tokens I have not looked at in quite a while and are covered in PVC residue from the previous owner. Here are some of the dirty ones:







I'm about to order some new flips and get ready for some acetone and Verdi-Care baths!

 

Someone did. See the catalogs of Paul Cunningham for U S military tokens.
There are also catalogs for poker chips and casino tokens.

 

I meant that as a joke about the references, but having a reference of all military clubs would be interesting. Infact author and numismatist Ray Bows included in his Vietnam reference all named buildings he could track down that were in Vietnam and the story behind their naming.

Cunningham is great but there are a lot of tokens out there that never made it into the catalog, especially casino/poker chips. (My collection is home to many unlisted types)

Numismatist John Kallman put together a phamplet covering military casino/poker chips but the Shemya chip was not included. I suppose I could reach out to him and see what he thinks about it.