Pretty bad day decting. About 3 hours swinging and only about a buck in clad, BUT...

Skippy SH13

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Feb 18, 2015
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I found this medal on a tot lot. It has very little value (checked on line, they seem to be worth about a buck), but it's interesting. Still trying to figure out who minted it and why. Any ideas, Treasurenet?

Presidental Medal.png

Easily found searching American Fabius George Washington and then looking at the images... but I'm not really finding out much information other than "other people have these, too."

Was a fun find, and definitely gave me something to look at for a while and do some research on. They can't all be gold ring days. :)

-Skippy
 

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Upvote 3

hbeaton

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A few TH forums, including this one, (see link to thread below) have discussed this topic. General consensus seems to be they were part of a Shell Oil Company "Presidents Game" set in which with each fill up you would get one of these tokens and if you collected them all, you would get some sort of prize option (free gas, etc.)

Competitors like Amoco had their games too but I think this particular game set belongs to Shell. Late 60s/early 70s.

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/what/127999-john-quincy-adams-token-who-made.html

Also, the "American Fabius" name attributed to George Washington? That's an homage to the Roman General Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus who employed a military strategy to defeat Hannibal whereby the Romans did not directly engage the enemy but rather took pot shots, guerrilla tactics to wear the enemy down before an all out assault could be decided. The strategy is called the Fabian strategy. Washington employed a similar strategy during the first year or so of the Revolutionary War.

Finally, there is a similar example in the Smithsonian made by Scovill in the early 1900s but if you notice the date on your token is horizontal with the face of Washington, not curving around the obverse with the rest of the letters as is present on the Scovill example.


Hope this helps!

HH,
Hunter
 

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garyo1954

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Msbeepbeep

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At lest you had a little excitement hunting! Congrats! I tried poking. Digger into the ground here, a no go. Maybe by April!
 

Scrappy

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Good days are that much better when we have crappy days.

Next one'l be better
 

OP
OP
S

Skippy SH13

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OP
OP
S

Skippy SH13

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Primary Interest:
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Yeah, I hope so. Because today was DAY 2 of Crappy.

Today's finds included 4 pennies (the oldest was 1971), a dirty quarter and a 2004 dime. And me cursing every bottle cap company ever made. I'm beginning to just hate those things. I'm actually thinking about cleaning them up and mounting them to a nice board and displaying it at the local park. YOUR TRASH will be the title.

Skippy


Good days are that much better when we have crappy days.

Next one'l be better
 

yodi

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I gotta say if you weren't hassled by a tree huger, pee'd on by a dog or molested by a smelly hippie it was a good day detecting.
 

garyo1954

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Nope, Definitely not THAT coin!

AND YOU'RE RIGHT! It's not that coin as I said. That coin is from the Shell President's Game with the link included to SHOW IT WAS NOT THAT TOKEN.

THERE ARE 2 VERSIONS OF THE TOKEN YOU HAVE known as READERS DIGEST's Commemoratives.
One has the date above the bust, known as version #2.
The other has the date on either side this is known as version #1.

Google George Washington Commemorative Tokens and look at the images.
If I get a chance I'll do it and post.

il_340x270.740911339_i57j.jpg
 

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hbeaton

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I think Garyo1954 got it right. There was a Reader's Digest Commemorative Set done in Brass that has the same image as the OP token. Title of the Commemorative Set was called "Free For You: A Coin History of the U.S. Presidents". Looks like the set was issued in 1997 (as was mentioned maybe there was more than one set).

PresidentialTokens0003.jpg

and the next page
PresidentialTokens0002.jpg
 

46Wheat

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Thank you for sharing your hunt and those pictures with us .
 

Scrappy

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Yeah, I hope so. Because today was DAY 2 of Crappy. Today's finds included 4 pennies (the oldest was 1971), a dirty quarter and a 2004 dime. And me cursing every bottle cap company ever made. I'm beginning to just hate those things. I'm actually thinking about cleaning them up and mounting them to a nice board and displaying it at the local park. YOUR TRASH will be the title. Skippy

Honestly I'd say get the hell outta that park and find something older. I always dig deep signals. Find an older place and do the same. If a bunch lincoln cents shows up at 5", move on. Don't waste time. Find parks built in the 50's, 40's etc.
 

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