help id this token plz

MDING TOM

Full Member
Mar 19, 2006
117
0
Watton, MI. (Upper Pen.)
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All Treasure Hunting
i know its hard to id a token with out any names on it but i have a token here that i would like any help in iding what its for, age, n value. any help would make me very happy thanks

the token is the size of a nickel with a hole in the the center one side reads " GOOD FOR 5c IN TRADE" with a + sing in the bottom center
the other side has "4652" on top n a bow? on the bottom

again any help would be greatfull
 

idahotokens

Bronze Member
Aug 30, 2003
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Numbered tokens like the one you describe are one of the great mysteries of numismatics. They are "slot machine" tokens and presumably the number indicates the owner of the machine or a "route" of machines. These were small countertop machines that were often positioned next to the cash register in a pool hall or cigar store. The machines may not have been owned by the business where they were operated. Instead a machine operator would have a lot of them installed in various businesses in a given area and he would travel his "route" to service and collect.

When a customer would drop his nickel into the machine and pull the arm, if he were lucky, he would get a payout in these tokens. Theoretically, he could only use the token to buy something from the candy or cigar counter in the business where he got it, but if he walked out with it and used it in another pool hall, that business may or may not accept it. If it ended up in a different operator's machine, there was probably some mechanism to get the token back to the original operator.

These machines were popular in the 1920 to WWI timeframe. Unfortunately no records exist to tie the number to a location. They are found all over the Midwest and Western US. There is not much value in them - ePay always has a few of them listed, but they seldom sell for more than a few dollars.

John in ID
 

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