Bay City, Michigan. This is a brass token and it has quite a bit of wear on both sides. The obverse is listed in the title with the bank building. The reverse is a little worn away. “WE WILL ACCEPT THIS ON APRIL 1st AND OCTOBER 1st” around the rim. On the inside it reads “DEPOSIT FOR ???? IF YOU OPEN A NEW SAVINGS ACCOUNT OF $5.00 OR MORE LEAVING IT IN THE BANK 12 MONTHS AND PAY 3% COMPOUND INTEREST ON YOUR SAVINGS” I’ve never seen a token that had the explicit terms spelled out so clearly. I just wish it wasn’t so worn but it is a great addition to my token collection.
We used to get 3% on passbook savings. We still could but the banks have conditioned us to accept one half of one percent.
I’m thinking this is from the forties, maybe fifties but I don’t know for sure. It was obviously a way to make people want to save and $5.00 was a lot of money in the early sixties as I recall. For a quarter I could buy a full size candy bar (larger than today’s bars), get a medium size fountain drink, and a comic book and I’d still get change back.
Cool token, even in its worn stage and certainly a nice addition to a token collection. If it's too worn for your collection, you can send it to me. LOL
The banks used to push different savings schemes on school children. The Christmas Club. Put a dime a week in the club and have Christmas money. There was a government bond savings book. You would buy a stamp each week or month and eventually convert it to a savings bond. Several things that all got 3% compounded.
I bought a small group of tokens, about 20 of them. Some are duplicates but then there’s about 10 of them that I consider fantastic. This is one of them so I’ve gotta keep it. Sorry my friend.
Thanks. I bought a small lot and this, along with some others, caught my eye. I thought it was really special.
