Both this one and the plain Texas one are fantasy ones. The real tokens or checks are for cigars, drinks, food and billiards. Have a number of western auction catalogs with thousands of Saloon,Hotel,Bar tokens pictured all are small sum amounts. Any deals for the flesh trade were cash or gold dust/nuggets. Most between the lady providing the service and customer that way the lady got paid mostly before service rendered.Or to the keeper of the house and then to the lady before service. As a side note the most common reverse for the fantasy one is the $3 all night check.
1936 Great Lakes Exposition International Nickel Co. Flipper Token Nickel 25 mm A 1936 Great Lakes Exposition souvenir flipping token (Heads or Tails) or medal that is advertising The International Nickel Company. This isn't the first time they associated with expositions in the United States. 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition - Joseph Wharton Medal International Nickel Company Nickel 33 mm Most everyone who has looked at Exposition medals would have run across HK-323 St Louis Exposition International Nickel Company so-called dollar struck in nickel and there is another variety rarely seen HK-323a struck on brass. Joseph Wharton was influential in persuading the United States Mint to issue the first five-cent nickel coins in 1866, using nickel produced from his mines. Hoping to profit from the use of nickel in coins, Wharton in 1863 sold his interest in zinc and started the manufacture of nickel at Camden, New Jersey, taking over a nickel mine and refining works at Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. The Camden plant was located on the east side of 10th Street, adjacent to Cooper Creek, and had several large brick buildings and smokestacks. Wharton renamed the Camden plant the American Nickel Works, and his office there became his center of operations. However, the use of nickel in coinage was temporarily halted, and soon the Camden plant burned. Wharton rebuilt it in 1868 and made excellent profits from producing nickel because it became favored for coinage. Wharton won wide acclaim for his malleable nickel, the first in the world, and also for nickel magnets, and received the Gold Medal at the Paris Exposition of 1878. His factory produced the only nickel in the US and a significant fraction of the world supply. Eventually the surface deposits at the Gap mine were depleted and Wharton was obliged to purchase nickel ore from a mine in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. 1951 Canada Aluminum Dollar Size Medal - The Big Nickel - Sudbury
1962 USS Constitution Heraldic Art Medal This is a .925 silver "So-Called Half Dollar" with a patriotic theme. USS Constitution was launched October 21, 1797, from Edmund Hartt’s shipyard in Boston. First sailed on July 22, 1798, as one of the six frigates that began the new United States Navy. Construction cost was $302,718.84. Captured 33 vessels in 57 years of active service and for her three War of 1812 victories against the British Royal Navy. Constitution’s first War of 1812 battle occurred on August 19 against HMS Guerriere. The defeat of Guerriere was the first frigate-to-frigate victory of the U.S. Navy over the Royal Navy, then the largest navy in the world. Constitution became “Old Ironsides” when an American Sailor noticed that some of Guerriere’s shot failed to penetrate Constitution’s thick oak hull. “Huzza! Her sides are made of iron!” the Sailor purportedly exclaimed, and thus the nickname was born. 1841 Daniel Webster USS Constitution Hard Times Token HT# 16
1863 Benner & Bendinger Civil War Store Card Token 1863 V. Benner & C.H. Beninger New York Store Card Civil War Token Importers of Wines and Liquors No-1 Ave A Fulds No. NY-630 This is about the diameter of a US TWO CENT coin. 1863 Gustavus Lindenmueller Store Card Civil War Token Lindenmueller currency, or "Lindenmueller tokens," are one of the best-known and commonly struck types were store cards. Lindenmueller reportedly had more than one million of his one-cent tokens struck and placed into circulation in 1863. These tokens were larger than typical Civil war Tokens or Indian head cents of the time. They may have had a value of up to 5 cents in trade. ( one modern source has suggested an alternate production quantity of 350,000 tokens ) One of the common uses for the token was for streetcar fare. The Third Avenue Railroad company of New York, which had willingly accepted a large quantity of the Lindenmueller tokens in lieu of actual currency, asked Lindenmueller to redeem them. He refused, and the railroad had no legal recourse. Incidents such as these eventually forced the government to intervene. On April 22, 1864, Congress enacted the Coinage Act of 1864. While the act is most remembered for the introduction of the phrase "In God We Trust" on the newly created two-cent piece, it also effectively ended the usage of Civil War tokens. In addition to authorizing the minting of the two-cent piece, the act changed the composition of the one-cent piece from a copper-nickel alloy 4.67 grams to a lighter, less thick piece composed of 95% copper weighing 3.11 grams. The new one-cent piece was much closer in weight to the Civil War tokens, and found greater acceptance among the public. While the Coinage Act made Civil War tokens impractical, the issue of their legality was decided on June 8, 1864, when Congress made the minting and usage of non-government issued coins punishable by a fine of up to $2,000, a prison term of up to five years, or both. It did not make it illegal to own Civil War tokens, however, and evidence exists that the tokens were collected as early as 1863, when the first known listings of Civil War tokens were published. Gustavus Lindenmueller a German immigrant "The Lager Bier King" was established as a seller of lager beer in New York City by early 1851. He had a saloon at 118 Chatham Street in New York City, said to have been converted from a bowling alley, and was providing free dinners to hundreds of the poor on a daily basis. In 1858 Lindenmueller was arrested for violating the Sunday laws, and five to eight hundred customers were "cleaned" out of his "disorderly" establishment, which was called by the New York Times "a notorious gambling and dance-house." Later in the year to 49 Bowery, where he was the proprietor of the Odeon Theater, a lager-bier, concert, and theatrical saloon. On 18 December 1858 his theater building was destroyed by a fire. He had other establishments and a theater. The token with the mug on the reverse was good for a beer, while the other known reverse with ODEON was good for his theater admission. I can only think of the "Gangs of New York" movie and what those places must have been like in those days. In 1861 Lindenmueller served in the Civil War. Eventually he was commissioned as a first lieutenant. Went AWOL for months at a time on a couple occasions and was dismissed from The Army. He went back to the beer and liquor business but died of tuberculosis at age 46.
3 inch bronze Medallion from the Medallic Art Co. N.Y. Paul Manship copyright 1961. John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
1972 era Longines Symphonette Sterling Old Ironsides Medal Captain Isaac Hull ~ USS Constitution August 19, 1812 Britannia ruled the waves at the onset of the War of 1812. When the British frigate HMS Guerriere dueled USS Constitution in the war’s first major naval engagement, the outcome was swift, decisive and surprising. In less than an hour of fierce fighting, Guerriere was in tatters and Constitution had been transformed into an American icon: “Old Ironsides.”
Hobo Tokens depicting Ron Landis and Joe Rust, formerly of the Gallery Mint Museum. Struck in .999 silver at 20.5mm. Ron Landis: Joe Rust: