From my experience as a long-time merchant token collector (30 years) as well as what all my colleagues in the token organizations stress, tokens with a number being the only identifying indicator of location are difficult, if not near impossible, to attribute.
Thanks so much for the input, I found the token in a bag marked "Old Junk" $1 at an antique yard sale. In the bag was a key chain, silver wash over brass and a cameo. I also purchased an oak map case used in schools, has three maps, U.S., Asia and Europe. The U.S. map has the Indian Territories listed, Asia has Iran as Persia and Vietnam as French Indo China.
I have tried to research tokens like yours, I came up some that are work/store tokens, Or some are 'vending' machine tokens and the number sometime identifies the token to a specific machine. They seem to be quite generic and without any provenance are hard to identify. IMO.
Persia's name was changed to Iran in 1935, so the case must pre date that year. Thanks everyone for helping with the token; I learn something new everyday on this forum.
Without seeing the maps, it is hard to say much. Most maps will usually have a date, in the key or near the lower border. My blind guess would put them prior to the Depression. The Indian Territories shown might be more useful for dating if you can find no dates. The map showing Panama dates it after 1903, so you have about thirty years or so to play with.
I will spend more time with the maps, thanks for the direction. I did not initially see any dates; I will look closer. Thanks.
It is a slot machine token 1890's to 1940's. The tokens with thousands of different numbers, from 0 to 50,000 or above. to get around the gambling laws of the various locations some machines had gum or mint vending components attached to them The numbers refereed to either the machine it self, machine operators, or the businesses. The tokens with the holes in the center when replayed would not vend additional gum,mints or candy. The above is from Alpert and Elman Tokens and Medals book.
