[/IMG]First I appoligize for the poor quality of the photo, but does anyone recognize this coin. It reads "Good for 5 cents in trade". The back has a 57 stamped on it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
57? ketchup??? nah... Sounds like an old 'trade token' do a 'google image' search for the phrase 'good for 5 cents in trade' and have a look around the world of exonumia
I'm not into Exonumia, but tried doing a few Google image searches... "Good for 5¢ in trade" star 57 "Good for 5 cents in trade" star "Good for 5" star exonumia "Good for 5" star -- plenty of images, but no matching hits... Good luck. Hope you can find more about what you have. CheetahCats
If you don't mind me asking, how did you come to have the coin. Were you like me, and bought it because it was pretty or interesting?
Actually found it with a bunch of old coins that were passed on to my wife from her grandfather. He was in the Marines during WWII and collected coins from all over the world, this is the only one I can't figure out.
The side shown is of a trade token. Is the star of different metal? raised? I have no reverses in my books that is only numbers and no indications of provider. Is it possible the number refers to a military unit number such as a canteen or Px? Interesting. Welcome to the forum! Jim
Thanks Jim. The star appears to be of a different material but is not raised. It is very possible the number is a military number. It belonged to my wifes grandfather who was in the Marines.
This token is classified as an amusement token. Without knowing the diameter or if there is anything (such as ornamentation) on the reverse in addition to the number, I can not make a definite identification. In any case though, the token does not have much value. It could fall into the amusement token Phrases category. These are amusement tokens without names or initials, but have phrases relating to amusement. These are broken down further into groups and individual ids. The tokens in this category matching your phrase and the 6 pointed star all had diameters of 21 mm. So, it yours has that diameter, it would fall into the Phrases category and my 1984 ref. values the possible varieties between 5 and 25 cents. If it is dime size, then it would fall into the trade stimulator category, and those varieties were valued mostly at 25 cents with a few going as high as 50 cents. The trade stimulators were payout tokens of small trade stimulator slot machines. These tokens share two characteristics: they are dime sized and they generally have a number on the reverse but no name of a machine, manufacturer, or operator. Mills, Caille, Schall, Schultze and others made these machines from the 1890s through the 1920s or 1930s. The tokens used in these machines were nearly all identical other than the varying denominations as payouts. The number on the reverse of most of these tokens likely matched the serial number of the machine. A machine would be delivered with tokens of varying denominations, but they would all have the same number on the reverse. Some of these numbers had a letter prefix, but the significance of that is unknown.
Most likely an officer club token, that's my guess. Is the star aluminum? What is the diameter or approximate size of the token?
Thanks for everyones info. The coin is about the size of a quarter. Not sure what the star is made of, could be aluminum. Thanks again.
