Hello, I'm struggling with this token offered on eBay - it screams unauthentic to me. The color of the incuse design, the neatness of the hole, and the overall lack of corrosion (except the few spots on the reverse) make me suspicious of this piece. Not saying it's a fantasy piece...but for the current auction price I don't want to know. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Scarce-Hawa...320?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item566dd0de00 I'm open to opinions. Am I wrong?
Many years ago I got stung on some fake WWII tokens from the Channel Islands and I just believe there are many many more fakes than authentic ones so this one has the red banners fluttering to me.
Hey, thanks @scottishmoney for your input. I feel this is a fake too and I'm thankful for you taking a look.
Wow! It's up to $74.00. Someone's going to get stung! Of course I'm basing that on everyone being right about it being a fake.
I think is has a very good chance of being authentic. Lettering looks identical to this example from token catalog. http://tokencatalog.com/token_recor...id=31311&attribution_id=55421&td_create_uid=2
I don't know much about military tokens but I do know about incuse tokens like counterstamps. It appears to be struck on a press with the s/n added by hand...the numbers are slightly misaligned. The example shown by mikem2000 on Token Catalog shows some usage and looks genuine. More importantly, the serial number is different and was hand struck. Apparently, all pieces were struck with the "A-" and the s/n was applied separately as it must be when using different numbers. The token you're looking at appears to have never been used or, at worst, just slightly. Most fantasies, but not all, are punched with individual letter punches and look fake because of it. I'd say it's genuine Jack, but if you feel at all uncomfortable about it just walk away. That's always been my policy and you sleep better at night. Please let us know what you decide to do. Good luck. Bruce
In the Navy (and in the other military services, I think), meals were taken by enlisted personnel in the general mess, while officers meals were taken in the officer's mess.
Indeed. So why call it anything other than enlisted mess or officer's mess? Or NCO/Officer's mess? Maybe General Mess appears on other tokens; perhaps it's a phrase invented by civilian contractors who have taken over much of the military's "supply line." But why tags, why the holes? If they were intended to be some kind of ID for civilian contractors wouldn't a photo ID with security devices be more convincing? Way too many questions.
While we are not certain on the age, it would be my guess that "security devices" were not a realistic possibility at the time.
