Silver and worlds fair token!

cheese · Sep 4, 2006

I went to a new site today. It has good potential! I found several wheats, ranging from 1912 to 1958. I also found a bent up '41 merc (my first merc..finally), a 1939 quarter, a token for a half pint of cream at parramores dairy, and the most interesting thing is a token/coin from the sesqui-centennial exposition worlds fair in philadelphia. The token has a liberty bell with 1776 and 1926 on the sides, the date of sept 11, 1926 at the bottom, and on the reverse it has a cross and the letters A, K, A, and I around the cross. I have done a little searching and haven't found anything about this token yet. I know world's fair items are sometimes pretty valuable. Does anyone here have any info about this token?

PBK · Sep 4, 2006

stoney56 said:
My thoughts are it is pertaining to the KKK. The letters would correspond to the phrase "A Klansman I Am". It would be a visual recognition type coin. The membership drive was at it's peak in the 1920's and at its peak in the 1920s the organization included about 15% of the nation's eligible population. I would guess that it was made up as part of a membership drive and was given to someone who signed up at the fair. site.

Good call, Stoney! It's listed as #KK-221 in Birdsell's Ku Klux Klan Tokens. The token was issued for Klan Day, September 11, 1926, observed in conjunction with the Sesquicentennial Exposition held in Philadelphia that year. According to Birdsell, the token was struck by the Robbins Co. of Attleboro, MA— "Engraved Die No. R-1299, for June 1926 order placed by H. Mahleis Sons [sic] ; quantity unknown." (He likely meant H. Mahler's Sons, a jewelry firm based in Raleigh, NC.)

cheese · Sep 4, 2006

Wow! KKK coin/token? That was unexpected! Thanks for the ID.

River Rat...I'd love some more info on the dairy. How long ago was it in operation? The spot I'm detecting is the exact location of where the dairy was. I know the owner of the property.

Good idea bscofield6. I think I'll try it.

The site is hard to detect in some areas. In places, there is a ton of trash. The main weakness of my CZ7 detector is rusty nails. They fool it and give a good signal sometimes...especially with sensitivity up. I've learned to tell when it's a nail most of the time, but I have to recheck a lot of signals when detecting the area. We detected quite a bit of the property in a fairly random fashion, looking for a good spot. I figure money changed hands regularly somewhere on this site being a dairy and all. We finally made our way to one certain spot with lots of deeper signals. That's where all but the quarter came from (including the wheats). My friend found another dairy token like the one pictured. I am anxious to go back. I'll probably go again this sunday (sundays are about my only chance to go detecting...business is keeping me busy right now).

Hopefully I'll have more goodies to post next week!