Tag Archives: token

An interesting token

25 Oct

I stopped by a very old park where I have found a number of silver coins and some big gold before. I only intended to hunt for maybe 10 minutes mostly to test something.  After I dug up a couple of very deep chunks of iron, I got another such deep signal and after digging an 11+ inch hole I thought for sure I would find yet another chunk of rusted iron when to my surprise, a round shape was sitting on the dirt:

For a split second I thought I had a large cent but my brain quickly discarded that idea. I could see the date plainly: 1837 and the back had a design common to British coins so I thought I had a British coin but I was wrong on that count as well.

This is a British gaming token known as a Cumberland Jack. The token was first minted in 1837 when young Victoria became queen. Because she was a woman, queen Victoria could not assume the throne of Hanover due to some law that prohibited women from ruling that part of the world. So that post went to a certified jackass duke of Cumberland. This token was made in derision of him. The token was outlawed in 1883, which coincidentally, is one year before the park I found this beauty at was opened.

This is not the first token I’ve found with a super cool history. A few years ago I found a token from the East. You can read about it here.

Not the Seated coin I was looking for but alas, it is a very cool token if you ask me.

Thank you for stopping by.

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The Mystery Token Again

30 May

Not being able to stand it any longer, I went to the park with Maurice. I really wanted to revisit some voodoo that you can do with the Deus to gain ludicrous depth. Not to beat the proverbial dead horse but the one thing about upper level detectors is that you can continue to find new ways to extend their capabilities, in essence, getting a new detector.

Be that as it may, I was at the old hunted-out park (is there any other kind anywhere in the world?) testing this voodoo I spoke of earlier when I got a signal where I knew there were none left. So I went for it. The target turned out to be a metal object slightly larger than a U.S. quarter. Sweet. Then, not two feet away, I again got a signal. Both of the targets were around the 9 inch mark, which I call deepish because to me, deep starts at 10 inches.

The first target appears to be the front of a pin from the first commercial corn cob pipe factory in the United States, the Missouri Meerschaum Cob Pipe Company. I tried and tried to date this particular design with no success. The company is still in business today. The second target is the third M.K. token I have found at this very same spot. Equally, I have no information on this token. The best I can do is guess that it is a reproduction of the Mein Kampf tokens that Hitler’s supporters would make in Germany out of bus tokens back when Hitler was in jail.

Berlin_Omnibus_token

Above is a picture of one of the tokens from the Berlin Omnibus system. The M.K. would be stamped on the reverse of the token. Although not dated, this particular design was released in 1917.

Although I could be wrong, the idea is not too far fetched. There was support for the Nazi party in the U.S. until the bombing of Pearl Harbor. In my beloved city, the party even had a headquarters.

Baby Hospital

I am very excited for this new hunting strategy. I am not even running the latest version of the Deus software, which many report, adds depth to the Deus. I am updating as soon as time permits and re-hunt some promising spots around our fair city.

I’ll keep you posted.

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First hunt of 2014

1 Jan

Although we were expecting snow today, it was not to happen until the afternoon so I grabbed Maurice and headed into 2014 full of hope. I went to the same school I went to last year on my first hunt of 2013. The school campus is so large that there had to be a keeper or two left.

After about an hour of digging clad, I got a sweet signal and I went for it. I will never get tired of seeing that edge in the coin ball”
coin_ball

The winner of 2014’s first silver coin of the year is a 1947D Roosevelt dime:
First_silver_2014

Next I found a cool holed token. This token was made by the Pace Manufacturing Company from 1927 until the 1940’s. It went into vending machines also made by the same company, such as the Bantam Mint Vending machine. The vending machines also doubled as slot machines in that after you made the purchase, you also could get tokens back that could be traded for merchandise. It was a clever way to get around anti-gambling laws:
token-reverse

token_obverse

I spent two hours at the school and I left as I did last year feeling that I haven’t yet even scratched the surface. By the way, I found 10 nickels.
First_hunt_2014

So we are off.

Thank you for looking

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Mystery token

27 Dec

Today was beautiful so I went out in search of the last silver coin of 2013. I did not find a silver coin but I found yet another M.K. token. A quick Google search revealed that M.K. (Mein Kempf) tokens were created by the followers of Adolf Hitler while he sat in jail in Germany before he became the supreme German leader. His followers would take public transportation tokens and stamp M.K. on the reverse.

The token I found seems to be a machine made replica of those tokens. I have found nothing on these on the Net but my guess is that the American Nazis of the 30’s created them in homage to their cause in Germany.  Interestingly, as a young man in Wichita, while riding the bus, I overheard an old man tell someone else about the headquarters of the Nazi Party in our fair city.  That was until Pearl Harbor, then the Nazis suddenly disappeared from public life.  The building still stands, albeit abandoned, and for the longest time it was a church. Every time I drive by I want to detect the small sidewalk grass strip. Maybe some day they will tear up the parking lot. Wouldn’t that be an interesting hunt!

As I said, this is the second one I’ve found. This one was about 7 inches down.

mk

212

The 2 1/2 refers to the value of the original tokens; 2 1/2 pfennig.

Of course, I could be all wrong.

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Token spill

9 Oct

At lunch today, Maurice and I stopped at Riverside park for a bit of hunting. I only had about 20 minutes to hunt and I wanted to look for old coins.

I hit a spot that has produced some very old coins and relics. I was hoping for a repeat but I only got one signal that was interesting. Maurice was showing a bit of black on the old horse shoe (this means nothing to anyone not using a Deus metal detector) which meant the target was deep-ish. I went for it and this is what I found (Lincoln cent for size reference):

TokenSpill

The token on the left is a Goetz telephone token used in the Chicago area only. These were made from 1907 to 1944 by a company named Yale Slot and Slug Company. The company was owned by a druggist named Harry Goetz and he made these tokens until they become illegal in 1944 (don’t know why they became illegal). The token reads “Y. S. & S Co. Y40” the other side reads: “USA Y40”. I believe the Y40 refers to the year 1940. There are 200 or so designs of this token and many of them have a year on them.

The token on the right is less interesting and I guess is from the same time period.  The other side of this token reads “Good for Amusement Only”.

No coins today but the tokens are kind of cool.

Thank you for looking!

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Old Timey Relics

7 May

I met Stevouke from the Wheat State Treasure Hunter group after lunch work to hunt a lot located in an old part of town. We both experienced heavy EMI so it was tough hunting.

For my part, I ended with three cool relics:

Pella

This is a 1922 commemorative token from Pella Iowa. I saw that one sold online for $18.  They are supposed to be rare.

The interesting thing about this token is the Latin inscription; ‘In Des Spes Nostra et Refugium’ translates to ‘In God our Hope and refuge’. Every where I looked however, the Latin for that phrase was ‘In Deo Est Spes Nostra et Refugium’. I wonder if they really misspelled the Latin word for God. Please if you know Latin, weigh in.

new-method

This tag is from New Method Bood Bindery from Jacksonville Illinois. The company was founded in 1920 and their motto was ‘ These books are bound to stay bound’

sherry

The last relic is definitely local. I couldn’t find any information about it online. I have no idea who Sherry Peter Turley was. Most of the Turleys that came up on my search were from Hutchinson, Ks.  Skateland of course, is a skating rink. I don’t know if they are still open in Wichita.

Besides these cool relics, I found a Bell jar lid with the glass insert still intact plus some clad. No old coins.

Thank you for looking.

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Saturday morning

26 Jan

Excited as I was with my finds from yesterday, I decided to hunt early this morning before I had to go to my Karate class. I grabbed Maurice and headed into the cold morning with the aim of finding some deep silver at my deep silver park.

I returned to the spot where I found the war nickel and the wheats. I found more deep wheats and a good luck token:

token-obverse

token-reverse

Before I ran out of time, I decided to change spots and I am glad I did!

SLQ_dirty

This Standing Liberty quarter gave me a rather faint signal. It was all of seven inches deep. I was surprised to find it in fact because I thought a quarter would give a stronger signal at that depth. It is worn and maybe that’s why. It may have also been at an odd angle. You can see faint stars under the eagle on the reverse so it is older than 1916.

SLQ-clean

This is the very first silver quarter I have found at this park in over a year and a half of hunting it. This is also my first silver quarter of 2013 and my first SLQ of 2013.

It was not a bad morning hunt.

hunt

Thank you for looking!

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Good In Trade

9 Jan

I just love trade tokens! I went looking for silver at lunch time with Maurice –my Deus metal detector, and I found a trade token instead.

in_situ

 

I thought I had a shield nickel for a split second. My heart did a flip but then my subconscious took over and brought me back to reality. Rubbing off some of the dirt revealed the words around the edge.

Good_for_5

 

3414

 

The obverse has the words Good For 5¢ In Trade and the reverse has the number 3413 and nothing else.

The token also has a small hole in the middle. The hole seems to be part of the token’s original design as it blends very well with the token unlike holes bored after the production of the piece. The hole is a curious thing though as it cuts through the middle of some of the characters. I wonder what the function of it is. I also wonder what the number on the reverse means. How did the token system worked? Who issued tokens like this with no identifying information? When was this token issued?

I found this token where I found the Walking Liberty in the last days of 2012. I have found several old tokens there including other trade tokens of a different design. I know other hunters have found trade tokens here as well which leads me to believe that there may have been a store at the site in the past.

At any rate, after finding this and other tokens, me thinks more silver coins are hiding at this spot.

Thank you for looking!

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My oldest coin

14 Oct

I met up with a Stevouke and Patton from the Friendly Metal Detecting Forum and we hunted a 100 year plus old school that shut down earlier this year.

I had hunted this school before but not since I bought my XP Deus metal detector. It took about one hour before I found my first significant coin; a 1910 wheat cent.

1910 Lincoln cent - obverse

Sorry about the blurry pic. Still, 1910. Cool

Following KansasDave’s (another FMDF member) advice, I began a tight spiral around the spot where I found this wheat and sure enough, about a foot away, I got another good signal. I dug a hole and just about the 7 inch mark, I pulled something I knew was silver.

silver coin still in the dirt

Oh, what a lovely sight!

I didn’t want to pull it out until the guys saw it because I thought it may be a Barber coin or maybe even a Seated coin. Steveouke’s son, a favorite hunting buddy of mine, couldn’t resist anymore and pulled the 1920 Mercury out.

1920 Mercury dime

Worn down but it’s all mine

Later, I managed to find an Indian Head cent. It had a pretty heavy cover of crud but after some tender brushing, I was able to uncover the date: 1881; my oldest coin to date.

1881 Indian Head cent - obverse

If you look carefully, you can see the year it was minted: 1881

After a couple of toasted wheats, one of which I believe to be a 1911, I found a really cool token:

1933 Ford token

I wonder when it was the last time Ford used this logo

1933 Ford token - reverse

Thirty Years of Progress

The last thing I found was some kind of pin. The logo looks familiar but I can’t place it.

vintage metal pin

It was a fun hunt and the XP Deus didn’t disappoint. I know this school has been hit super hard before and after it closed, and yet, look at all the goodies. I plan on returning as often as I can to it.

Thank you for looking!

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Good Luck Token

22 Sep

I met a couple of guys from the Friendly Metal Detecting Forum this morning to metal detect at an old city park. These two guys use Etracs and they have been tearing this park apart, finding silver coin after silver coin, including a very cool 1891 Seated Liberty dime last weekend. I of course, brought Maurice, my XP Deus metal detector.

After a couple of hours, none of us had found very much. Redd found a 1910 wheat with no mint mark and I found this very cool Good Luck token.

Good Luck token

World Fair, St. Louis Missouri!

The token is just about the size of an American half-dollar coin and it references the Worlds Fair in St. Louis that took place in 1904. So either this token was given out at the fair or it was made after the fair and the token advertises that their stoves won the grand prize at the Worlds Fair. Either way, it is my oldest good luck token to date.

Good Luck token - reverse

The middle has a four-leaf clover and the words Good Luck.

Since KansasDave found that very cool Seated dime, I intend to hunt this park quite a bit this Fall.

Thank you for looking!

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