Well, this one didn't make it very far from its home! It is from right there in beautiful downtown Kaukauna, WI. Johnson's book, Trade Tokens of WI lists it and says that the reverse read:
GOOD FOR / ¢25¢ / IN TRADE
He also says it dates from 1911-12, which I imagine is the date of a Wisconsin business gazetteer where he found the info.
In the 1910 Census, Frank J. Hilgenberg is shown as Barber - Own Shop and he has a younger brother, Arthur, also living in their parent's home, shown as Printer - Own Printing Co. There is a third brother, Charles, but he is attending school.
In 1918 when young men were called to register for the WWI draft, Frank John Hilgenberg stated that he was born 21 Apr 1884 and had the occupation of billiard hall and barber shop. George Arthur Hilgenberg stated that he was born 22 Apr 1889 and that his occupation was printer foreman. Charles William Hilgenberg stated that he was born 29 Oct 1895 and that he was a carpenter.
In the 1920 Census, Frank Hilgenberg is shown as manager - pool & billiard room, and Arthur is shown as printer - printing office. Charles is listed as Karl (at least I think it is the same guy) and he is a carpenter.
In 1930 Frank is shown as operating his own billiard hall, Arthur doesn't appear, and Charles is shown as a foreman - government construction.
Frank died 6 Jun 1959.
So, I suspect the token was the result of an early partnership between Frank and Arthur, but Arthur left the partnership soon. The holes were put in the token after it was made as the one in Johnson's book do not have them. Holes are sometimes just random things, but these appear to be purposely taking out the denomination. This could have been done for several reasons, but usually it was done to change the value of the piece. A 25¢ token in a pool hall was a fairly large denomination, so it may have become necessary to change the value to 5¢ or some other smaller denomination. Drilling out the denomination as the tokens came back into the business would allow the proprietor to declare that the holed ones are now 5¢ and the unholed ones are still 25¢.
John in ID
