Found a old C.H. Mead Coal Co. token today! Calling all token experts!

rufus3898 · Jul 5, 2009

I found this nice little token at the base of a old tree today. It is about the size of a dime and copper. If there are any token collectors out there maybe you could answer a few questions about this token. What was the purpose of this token? Approximate age? Would it of had any use up here in Canada or was it dropped by a tourist years ago? Thanks all!

Daina Leigh · Jul 5, 2009

I'm not a token collector but I am a bored person in the middle of the night lol. With a bit of Googling I found something that may help you a little.

http://tokencatalog.com/token_recor...d=26863&attribution_id=52751&td_create_uid=39

Hope it helps some!

~ Daina Leigh

Narthoniel · Jul 5, 2009

Im no expert either, but I have heard of tokens like this. When someone owned and operated a coal mine, they would pay their employees with tokens which my buddy calls coal script. This was like cash, but could only be redeemed at the company owned store. Since the company owned the store and the workers could only shop there, it made the owners more money. They also charged unfair prices and pocketed even more. A very nice find indeed!
Anthony

jrsherman · Jul 6, 2009

Pretty cool token Rufus!

garthbfan169 · Jul 6, 2009

That is very kool rufus. WTG!! :headbang:

intimer · Aug 12, 2009

just finding the post!

this is a coal mine token from raleigh county, east gulf, wva. it is listed as an r-2 out of 10 meaning a few dollars. neat find.

the reverse is the manufacturer ingle schierloh. note the des. pat. and the number in the half moon. this means it is their design (des.) post-patent (pat.) then the pat. numbers i suppose. the pre-patent would have been pat. (on left) and pend. (on right) with no numbers.

the ISC1 or pat. pend. was dated 1922-1941
the ISC2 or des. pat. and number was dated 1928-1958

not sure why the dates overlap.