I was just listening to The CoinShowRadio when Mike and Matt were talking about dollar coins. And they mentioned the Mr. Presidents tokens from Shell gas stations in the 1960s. In the 60s, I was too young to drive and did not. But, my father did and he must have gone to the Shell station regularly, and he probably knew the guys that worked there. Whammo! I have recently taken ownership of my parents home. Going through the stuff, I knew that Daddy and me had some Whitman folders for cents and nickels. But, after finding all of those, I was in the back room, and saw a small 2 drawer metal case. When I pulled out one of the drawers, it looked like it was full of silver in 2x2s, a couple of tubes, and a glass baby food jar of silver . . . . . . . Mr. President tokens! Which was completely unknown to me. Never heard of them. As soon as I picked one up, too light. Made of al-o-min-um-in-i-um But, they looked uncannily like our golden Prez dollar coins, for sake!~!!! Yep, there's a website all about it: http://www.coins-n-medals.com/Exhibits/ShellGames/ShellPresidentsGame.html This was enough to freak me out how Shell invented it first. But, the REAL SHOCK came when I found out about the next game that Shell did: American States!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't have any of those
Shell, Sunoco and some others had a laundry list of tokens for use in games they had running. some of the prizes were complete set of bronze tokens. Sunoco had antique cars in two series. I won both sets, As the cover envelope states they are Franklin mint sets. they holders are cardboard. As been stated these aren't worth much, both are generally in the .25¢ bin. Even the bronze complete sets don't bring much in the LCS. first photo is the cardstock collectors card the coins slots were half moon slits in the card. As it happens on the web the photo of the #two set is currently no where to be found.
The Shell tokens and other gas tokens are a lot of fun. The Mr President tokens have three varieties and they can be tough to find in pristine condition. Unfortunately many of these tokens are extremely rare or don't exist. Ironically the bronze set that was a prize winner is much more common than the aluminum losers. Putting sets of these tokens together is tough and fun. Twenty years from now there might be some interest in them but there certainly isn't much now.
I have complete sets of all of these tokens, and indeed, they are FUN to collect. When I find any extras of the Lincoln tokens, usually in the Dime or Quarter "junk boxes" of dealers, I get those, and then use them for elongating something on the reverse, so now I have a "unique" Lincoln token... By the way, did I mention I collect anything Lincoln...?
Do you have a complete set of the aluminum Mr. President Coin Game tokens? I'd love to see photos of the key tokens.
I built a web page to clarify details about the Shell's Mr. President Coin Game medallions and other gas station promotions: http://www.billjamie.com/Shell/Shell-Coin-Game/Mr-President-Coin-Game/Mr-President-Coin-Game.html
Thats a great web page Bill , thanks for sharing. British Petroleum (BP) issued alu tokens in 1969 of ancient coins , no prizes to win, just for collecting. Issued in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. in France BP issued 2 more sets in 1970 & 1971 , pirate coins and Royal ancient french coins
Andreas, thanks for the nice pictures of the BP promotions. There was a huge expansion of interest in both numismatics and philatelics during this time so these types of promotions were well-received and they were educational, also.
