Need some help IDing an older Token...

[strateloss]

Need some help ID'ing an older Token...

I found an interesting token in a very old park. I did some research, but found very little out about the name of the company. If any of the token gurus can help ID it, I'd really appreciate it.

It reads, Cafeteria Service " For Employees Only" 740 Dun & Bradstreet. I don't think it's super old, but it definitely looks older. A friend did find an 1835 half dollar about 20ft from me.

Here are pics of both.




Thanks guys....HH

 

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[wvwildman]

nice finds congrats HH

 

[idahotokens]

Well if that isn't ironic! One of the most widely-used references used in researching maverick (i.e. without town & state) tokens are the Dun & Bradstreet directories. And here we have a maverick that is presumably from that company.

The Dun & Bradstreet credit rating company was the result of a merger of R. G. Dun & Co. and the J. M. Bradstreet Co. Both were competing outfits that had offices all over the US and Canada - they had reporters scattered out from regional financial offices who monitored bankruptcies, and court cases, got "local intelligence", and used many other sources to figure out the credit ratings for businesses from a one-person pool hall to the Ford Motor Co. The results of their work was compiled into "Mercantile Agency Reference Books" that were issued quarterly on a subscription basis. A business that operated on credit could buy their choice of a state, regional or national edition. For a small state, the single state edition was 5x7" and less than an inch thick, designed for pocket carry by a traveling salesman. This was so that a salesman could scope out the rating of a potential customer and offer him terms (or not) depending on the rating shown in the book. The regional and national editions were about 14x18" and up to 6" thick of very thin paper - thousands of pages - and were designed to stay in an office, but the purpose was the same. Since these publications were offered on a subscription basis, the recipient was supposed to return the old issue when he received a new issue, therefore making these directories relatively scarce. Also, the "credit scores" were in code supposedly to render the information useless if an unauthorized person saw the codes. But the coding scheme was inside the front cover of each book... It consisted of an estimated size of each business listed, ranging from over $1 million to under $1000, plus a credit worthiness figure from A1 (high) to 5 (limited). The type of each business was also coded so that a salesman of drugstore supplies, for instance, could pick out all the drugstores in a town with ease.

Dun's main offices were in New York City and Bradstreet's were in Cincinnati, but after the merger in 1933, I am pretty sure the headquarters stayed at Dun's location of 290 Broadway in New York City. In the era when all of this data was compiled without the aid of computers, I have often thought that there would have been thousands of clerks involved with the process. Sending and receiving letters and telegrams, monitoring the ups and downs of all of the companies who might need to borrow or buy on credit, keeping track of formation, mergers, bankruptcies, and sales of businesses, alphabetizing and coding all of the entries and publishing the info on each business into at least three different books, each published every three months, and on and on, is almost beyond comprehension without a computer! I don't know how much of this process took place in the 290 Broadway building, or whether there may have been a "processing center" located outside of the City, but wherever it was, there may well have been an employee cafeteria there. And, I can well imagine that each employee who used that cafeteria may have been issued a numbered token which she or he would show the cashier every time lunch was purchased - a charge card. This employee, #740, would have the price of each meal charged to her account and when payday came around, that amount would be subtracted from the check.

So, a couple of questions for you: are all the letters incused (stamped into the metal) or just the 740? Is the back blank? Would you be interested in posting a good, well-lit, in-focus, straight-on closeup to Richard's Token Database - TokenCatalog.com for the benefit of all collectors?

Thanks!
John in the Great 208

 

[strateloss]

Hey Idahotokens, you got it. I'll post some better pics tonight but I'd rather clean it up first. I haven't done anything to it besides wash it with water. Any ideas as I don't want to ruin it?

BTW, the back looks blank and the letters are all incused!

 

[idahotokens]

Personally I wouldn't clean it with anything stronger than a little handsoap on a toothbrush under water. If you have a movable light (I use one of those old tensor desk lamps), you can adjust the lighting from the side so that all the lettering comes out nicely in a photo.
John in the Great 208