Ive done alot of research on this. I came into it not knowing anything about it or the company. from my research its in the book Standard Catalog of United States Tokens 1700-1900. I do not have this book These were giving out with the watches they sold and using the serial on the reverse i was ble to look up which watches go with this token that plus the design of father time make this realy cool its from the 1870s and has a raity of r-5 and sulposedly means 31-75 known in present existence ( i dont understand this) also different ones of these are listed as r-5+ and im not sure what that means? i can find the other types of these that were made in later years on ebay etc but i can not find a value on this one (one of the first ones). If some one has this book can you let me know what it says about it. The pictures make it look a lot worse then it does. more info and better pictures of these tokens http://www.novanumismatics.com/industry/the-elgin-national-watch-co-its-father-time-tokens/
That's the rarity factor. Anything over an r-3 is fairly difficult to find.......the Rulau volume is a must have volume for token collectors. It would be worth your while to add it to your numismatic library if you are going to explore this niche.
i have a few tokens but nothing as old as this one its not realy something im going to start collecting i love the way this one works is there a value listed in the book?
Rulau doesn't include prices for today's prices as it is an older edition , and I know of no reliable guide for prices either . Very cool token though .
The newest copy of Rulau's Standard Catalog of United States Tokens that I have is the 4th edition (2004). Your token is id number Il-El 6 (also Wright 287, Miller Ill. 42, Schmidt E27). This is the most readily available token in this series, of which 15 varieties are listed. It is made of white metal. Values listed by Rulau are: F $4, VF $9, XF $15, UNC $25. In verifying the rarity populations (there are many different rarity scales), what I saw in the introduction to Rulau's Trade token section was that an R5 rarity is given for known populations of 75 to 199, and is labeled as "Very Difficult". I do have a concern with mentioning this difference in quantity as Rulau placed that rarity chart in a short section discussing Billiard tokens, rather than in a more general trade token discussion. But, I looked several times and did not see any other rarity chart in the trade token introduction to indicate that any of the non-billiard trade tokens would use a different chart. May I ask where you found the rarity information that you posted? All of the varieties in this series have rarity ratings of R5 or R6 (20 to 74 known). If a token is shown as rarity R5+, that indicates that the known population is at the lower end of the range for that rarity rating. For example, if there were say, 80 known specimens of a particular trade token, an R5+ rating could be used to indicate that its known population is close to being rated at the next level.
Ebay has this in the medals section sometimes. Elgin has three different medals. The first one is a hard times token with a peacock on the obverse. The second one is this one with father time. The third one is a twentieth century medal showing the founders on the obverse and some chicago rememberances on the reverse. The medal with father time will range from $50 to $100.
i got the rarity info from here http://www.novanumismatics.com/numismatic-faqs-guides/the-various-numismatic-rarity-scales/
I should never reply to threads when I am half asleep. Realized that I confused Peacock Jewelers for Elgin. The HTT and the twentieth century medal are for Peacock Jeweler not Elgin. There is a second Elgin medal that is for the 1873 Chicago expo.
Lea I sometimes do the same things . That's why I hope the edit is still working when I catch a mistake . Elgin and Peacock are both big in the Chicago area or once were .
Ok, thanks, I see where you found the rarity, which varies slightly from Rulau's rarity (I have not seen Rulau use the "+" definition). These rarity numbers are pretty much a just a representation of the author's opinion, and are subject to change, especially if additional pieces become known, or if earlier population samples are proven to be incorrect. I still did not see where you found the population numbers relating to the R5 (+), but you must make sure the population chart relates to the rarity rating, as there is considerable variance between scales.
Great looking token, condition wise, well I don't have to say anything cause you already know. I just picked one up the other day and I'm waiting for another that I'm in the middle of buying. Normally I don't collect Aluminum Tokens or even coins for that matter, only Aluminum I collect is cans to recycle. Anyways, here's the one I got last week and here's one linked on the bay selling for the big dollars=MS63. When I get my really nice one, I'll try to get some pics posted, that's if and when I get it. What gets me is Rulau's rarity scale is an R-6 for mine, but I think that's a bit too generous as I always see these on feebay, just my opinion, after all Rulau is the expert. http://www.ebay.com/itm/1870s-ELGIN...439026?hash=item35f6f3caf2:g:BnoAAOSwTapV55n5
Got another one, better condition too. Not too many tokens with Father Time= the devil looking guy on them. When I read about the Rarity scale I had to get a couple as the price has to go up at some point. May take 10 or 20 years but I think I'll still be around.
