Back in the front yard. My 2nd Wheatie, and a Token!!!

[1996]

Wanted to go to an old bottle dump today, but couldn't get in touch with the land owner. just got out of my front yard which i detected for about an hour. Lots of trash from work on the property, but I mainly used a large shovel, so there wasn't a lot of time digging out a scoop at a time with a dull spade. no silver yet, which is somewhat of a let down, but i was really happy when a good bath proved the lone penny in my pocket to be a wheatie . I dug a signal that was reading somewhere around penny/dime. I really thought it was going to be a coin, but it turned out to be an octagon shaped disc. I thought, "maybe foreign", but I figured it was just a piece of trash. I hit it with soapy water, and one side has a design on it, and the only words i can make out so fart are "Good For". i guess it is a token, but i don't know anything about them, except what I have read on here. it is bent up (not from my shovel this time) a little bit, and the dirt on it is really stuck to it. i could chip it off, but don't want to risk damaging it. i would love some input on how to clean it.
thanks,
96

 

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[Detectingfreak]

nice job on the wheatie and the token!

 

[seger98]

A token in your own yard, wow what a nice find!

 

[1996]

It looks like an octagonal aluminum trade token, and these are always a mixed blessing.

The best results I have seen on the aluminum tokens is the use of a brass bristled brush. The era of use for those types of trade tokens was about 1890-1920, and they are usually damaged by the ground to some degree.

The other side will have the information about the issuer, or merchant. This is the fun part, and the part you can research a little bit.

As you can decipher more of the words, you may discover that you have the only known example, or a very rare one, or maybe it is a well known type.

Nice trade token find.

thanks, The brass brush worked like a charm.

Well, it got it clean anyway. This thing is bad corroded, but I still like it a lot. Here is a better scan of it. You can see the big gaping hole through the midle. Kind of a disapointment. token says, "good for 5 cents in trade", and "the elite hamburg. . ." don't know what comes next. Hamburg is the town I live in though, so that is pretty neat. Mom thought it was really cool to. You know, I think it says the elite, I can read a EL_TE, it could be some other word though?

laters,
1996

 

[DD-777]

Congrats on the digs - especially so close to home . Just about any token is a good token. They're easy to get hooked on once you dig a few more, and like Plebah said, it's fun and interesting to research them (you'd be amazed how far those little buggers travel through the years!)...