Found these TOKENS today. Anyone have any idea what they are?

[VaMike]

This is my very first post to the forum so, Hello everyone!

So, I found these tokens today. I am not sure what they are for, but there is a name on them "W.C. Harper" and also the town where I found them in "Port Republic, VA" (my backyard). On the back is a "10" on two of the tokens and a "1" on the other. I googled W.C. Harper in Port Republic, VA but had no luck. If anyone has any ideas what these are or what they were used for please help me out! Thanks!

 

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[NOLA_Ken]

Store or saloon tokens is my guess, I'd say that a trip to your local historical society is in order, I found a W.C. Harper who live from 1850 - 1939 and was on the board of The Port Republic Cemetery, you may be able to find an obituary for him from 1939 in your libraries archives.

 

[VaMike]

Store or saloon tokens is my guess, I'd say that a trip to your local historical society is in order, I found a W.C. Harper who live from 1850 - 1939 and was on the board of The Port Republic Cemetery, you may be able to find an obituary for him from 1939 in your libraries archives.

Awesome! Thank you for the help, we have a small museum that has a bunch of civil war relics from the Battle of Port Republic and it is maintained by the Port Republic Preservationists they may have some information on who W.C. Harper was and what these tokens were for. Should I clean these in any way or should I leave them as they are?

 

[NOLA_Ken]

I'd leave them as is, some of the token guys will hopefully see this soon and maybe give you more info

 

[david680]

Finding out the business that W. C. Harper was in, would be a great lead. Since I don't see any denomination here (cents) and they don't say Good For, I'm thinking they might be pickers checks, giving to farm workers as a receipt for however many bushels (or pints, quarts, etc.) that they had harvested. Idahotokens will undoubtedly see this, and he has a lot more resources. In tokens, having a city and state is probably the biggest key for attribution.

 

[VaMike]

That's really interesting. I'm glad I decided to check out this forum, it's very informative and everyone seems to offer great information! I appreciate the help david680 and NOLA_Ken.

 

[Diggin Dude]

Nice finds ! Never saw them before. People here will know. Congrats !

 

[villagenut]

Don't know anything about them but I have found an identical example of the 10 side with sunburst. Never did find out much but did post it on tokencatalog.com.

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/tokens-tags/437393-token-what.html

BTW welcome to the forum

 

[Trezurehunter]

Great tokens. I agree, try your local library or historical society. Sometimes the local research for items like that is a better way to identify them.

 

[idahotokens]

Right off the bat, I don't find any more on them than the W. C. may stand for Wilson Chesley - a Wilson Chesley Harper (1850-1939) is buried in the Port Republic Cemetery. I will contact the fellow who is working on an update to Schenkman's Virginia Tokens book (where there is no listing for this token) to see what he can tell us.
John in the Great 208

 

[VaMike]

Sounds great! Thank you so much for the help!

 

[idahotokens]

Mike--I heard back from the VA token cataloger. He says the author of the VA token book he is updating had only sketchy info about the 1 denomination and had not heard of the 10. He asks what the diameter is and supposes it is 24mm. He said, "I checked every Virginia Dun and Bradstreet I have (1866, 1870, 1882, 1891, 1902, 1905, 1912, 1917, 1918, 1920, 1921) and cannot find an entry for him. He's a mystery, though clearly a Rockingham County merchant."

His luck is about like mine - I couldn't find him in any of the sources I have - Census, etc. So that just means the search has to get more serious.

John

 

[VaMike]

Looks like I will be checking with local historical societies and maybe the Port Republic Preservationists. There is also a museum here and a few "old timers" around I can check with. I have a few books with a lot of historical information about businesses in and around Port Republic, so I will be searching through those. The diameter is 24.26 mm same as a modern quarter. Thank you so much for all the time you put into helping me and for the great information!

 

[david680]

Wilson Chesley Harper (1850 - 1939) - Find A Grave Memorial

Chesley Harper - Historical records and family trees - MyHeritage

 

[david680]

With a name and a birth and death date, I think my first look would be for a obituary.

 

[Rick (Nova Scotia)]

INteresting. A good winter project.
I would assume that he must have been in a decent sized business, or would not have been worth issueing his own tokens, quite a mystery.

 

[VaMike]

With a name and a birth and death date, I think my first look would be for a obituary.

Thanks for the info! The graveyard is 0.2 miles from my house. I'm excited to find out more about all this. Thanks again David!