I am a young collector out of Denver Colorado and I even own a small coin company, which I operate myself. I have been to several ANA World’s Fair of Money conventions and a few ANA midyear conventions, but I have never been to a National Token Collectors Association (NTCA) National Token and Medal show. This year the NTCA show was in Salt Lake City and I figured it was a good excuse to get out of town for a few days to experience another side of the collecting hobby. I enjoy collecting “Morgan’s” and “Walkers” like many other people, but my passion is in merchant trade tokens especially from Colorado. I have assembled a very nice collection of tokens from a total count of 239 different Colorado towns and ghost towns, and it is becoming exceedingly difficult to locate tokens from towns in Colorado which I don’t have an example from. I arrived to the show on the first day about an hour after they opened the front doors, and I was very excited to see more tokens then US coinage at the dealer’s tables. I stated to make my initial rounds, where I quickly examined all the different tables and dealers inventory, and made a metal list of the tables I wanted to spend more time at. Not much time passed when I bumped into several friends and acquaintances that I knew from ANA conventions and ANA summer seminars. I was even amazed that a few dealers, whom I have never met before, recognized me as winning the Howland Wood Memorial Award for Best-In-Show Exhibit at this year’s ANA’s summer convention in Los Angeles. I had several conversations with friends and dealers, but it was time to find some tokens. I first approached a dealer from California, and asked if he had any Colorado tokens. I bought about a dozen tokens from this dealer and even picked up two Colorado mining checks from the dealer next to him. I was glad that I arrived at the show “somewhat” early because as soon as I got up from that dealers table another collector sat down requesting to see Colorado material. I continued walking the bourse floor and spent some time talking to an Oklahoma dealer about a specific Indian Trader token I was interested in. I approached another dealer as I overheard him talking to a collector about a rare Colorado token, my spider senses were tingling. I made small talk with this dealer, I believe he was also out of California, and I asked if he had any Colorado stuff. He seemed to get a little excited when I asked this question and he pronounced, “I was wondering if there were any Colorado collectors here.” I asked to examine the token I was eye-balling, and discovered the town was not part of my 239 different town collection. The token of conversation is attributed in the Guide to Colorado Merchant Trade Tokens by Pritchard (2004), as being from Gold Hill Colorado and was good for 5c in trade at a general merchandise store. The token book says that this token would have been circulated between 1893 and 1912, but I do not believe this to be correct. I personally believe this token to be from the time period prior to 1895, here is why. Gold Hill Colorado is located in Boulder County, just a few miles North West of the University of Colorado’s campus in Boulder. Gold Hill was originally called Left Hand and was established in 1872, but the day after Christmas in 1879 the people of the community moved the post office and change the name of their town to Gold Hill. The town, like many other small mining towns and camps, did not survive and was discontinued on June 4th 1895. Currently Gold Hill Colorado is considered a Census-Designated Place (CDP), which is a type of placed identified by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes. CDPs are populated areas that lack separate municipal government, but which otherwise physically resemble incorporated places such as cities or towns. The token I bought at the NTCA token show is also attributed to Gold Hill in the 1977 Colorado Merchant Tokens book by Wright and Nott. The token has the words “Gold Hill” stuck into the obverse, and since Wright, Nott, and Pritchard attributed this token to Gold Hill and also since Gold Hill was discontinued in 1895 leads me to believe that this token was circulated prior to that time. My first National Tokens Collectors Association annual show was a big success, and I now own tokens from 240 different Colorado towns. I was able to catch up with old friends and made some new ones and my only regret is that there are not more shows and conventions out there to accommodate the token collector.
