What are some good reference books for Trade Tokens?

[Greybear]

On occasion I have found a trade tokens and would like to find a few reference books so I can ID my finds and get a bit of history, value would be nice also but as that changes year to year it's not that important. Also being able to get it in Kindle format would be a plus so I could have it in the field but again not a must have.

 

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[texasvarmit]

On occasion I have found a trade tokens and would like to find a few reference books so I can ID my finds and get a bit of history, value would be nice also but as that changes year to year it's not that important. Also being able to get it in Kindle format would be a plus so I could have it in the field but again not a must have.

www.tokencatalog.com is a great website for ID trade tokens of the world, based and started in the USA so a lot of emphasis on USA tokens. but there are tokens from many different countries and "maverick" trade tokens.

As for books....there are some books by Russell Rulau that have a lot of trade tokens of the USA and it has prices though those prices are often wildly out of touch. Standard Catalog of United States Tokens, 1700-1900: Russell Rulau: 9780873414791: Amazon.com: Books

Almost every state has it's own book on trade tokens and there are book on trade tokens from specialties (saloon tokens, lumber token, coal tokens, parking tokens, transit tokens, bimetal tokens, etc) so you can spend a lifetime getting all the books on tokens and still not have a book for every token one might find.

But I understand you need and I would suggest you use either the www.tokencatalog.com site or the Rulau book above.

 

[idahotokens]

Texasvarmit makes a good point re TokenCatalog.com - personally, I don't think the Rulau book is of much use for 20th Century tokens - there are so many of them "out there". If you live in Colorado, I'd certainly think you ought to come up with a copy of Pritchard's Guide to Colorado Merchant Trade Tokens. It has its share of errors and lacks a lot of historical info, but it is what there is. The older Wright & Nott Colorado book might be a viable alternative because (according to my copy of Pritchard's book), there were only 200 printed of it.

If you are serious about learning about trade tokens, you might want to consider joining the National Association of Token Collectors (NTCA - see the link on TokenCatalog.com) or the Token and Medal Society TAMS Home - the advantage to a TAMS membership is access to its extensive library of books and other publications which may be borrowed for the cost of round-trip postage.

John in the Great 208

 

[Greybear]

Thanks for the info. The Tokencatalog site is pretty good and is a good forum for asking about finds as well as on here. I will look into some of the books. I think the state guides would be very helpful. I'll have to see if I can find the Colorado and Wyoming books. Also would like to get the Arizona as I have a few tokens from there I would like to find out more about.

 

[idahotokens]

I think the Arizona book is still available from the author - on tokencatalog's home page, go to the additional info drop down menu and look at resources. That gives contact info to buy books if it is known.
John in the Great 208

 

[Greybear]

Thanks, I'll check it out!

 

[intimer]

joining a few club gets you free ads, sometimes, and more contact with collectors
NTCA $18/year online version affiliated with tokencatalog is a good national club.
NSCA, Inc. $20/year (quarterly newsletter) is coal & lumber token club. CO had coal, but only 3 lumber listings.
there are a few copies left of coal catalog tokens 3rd edition Volume 1, (all states except WV) Edkin's Coal Company Scrip it is listed on ebay at $20 + S/H.
the 4th edition of both coal catalogs re waiting to be printed. Volume 2 (WV only)will be printed first then Volume 1. they will sell for 40-45 dollars each.
the Trantow lumber book is on ebay for $35. the coal & lumber books are published through NSCA.