Texas Trade Tokens

Almost 35 years have past since the first publication of The Trade Tokens Of Texas as a special bonus issue of the Token And Medal Societies Journal. The subsequent volumes that followed while providing many new listings and pictures left a lot to be desired. By 1993, there were four separate books to look through while attempting to identify and attribute Texas tokens. The authors of the upcoming publication are attempting to list all known tokens to date and incorporate a numbering system along with a rarity and desirability scale. Although most price guides and rarity scales are obsolete when they are published, it is necessary in order to give the future collector a base point to start. For those future collectors, here is an extremely valuable piece of advice. UNLISTED DOES NOT ALWAYS EQUAL RARE. (The numbering system will be the last addition before publication and is not included on this website.)

Texas tokens have been cataloged as far back as the time when they were first being struck. Although Texas merchants issued tokens for a variety of reasons, they were never intended to be collected. The fact that they were produced for use without the intention of being a collectable item is the reason they are worth many times their original face value today. The historical significance of most tokens is easily traceable by researching the wealth of information placed upon them. Proprietor name, address, business name, date, town, and state are but some of the examples. Virtually any town that existed between 1870 and 1930 should have tokens issued from some of it's merchants.

Even the most common Texas tokens are rare when compared to key date mintages of United States coins. Although they bear no intrinsic value, the style, beauty, and intricate die work of many Texas tokens rivals even the finest United States coin. Coins and medals are each struck in a particular alignment or rotation. Coins have dies orientated in “coin alignment”, where the reverse appears upside down when the coin is rotated left to right. Medal dies are orientated in “medal alignment”, where the reverse is right side up when the medal is rotated left to right. Deviations from this alignment in coinage are considered to be error coins. The most valuable are those that have shifted 180 degrees so that both sides appear upright when the coin is rotated. Tokens were struck with no particular die alignment in mind so they appear in virtually any rotation. This is not considered an error and has absolutely no affect their value.

The average token order by a merchant was most likely 144 pieces or one gross, while average mintages of key date coins range between 10,000 to 500,000 pieces. Surviving records indicate orders of 1000 tokens but these are not broken down by denomination. Assuming there was an eight piece token set including a cent, nickel, dime, quarter, half, dollar, five dollar, and ten dollar evenly split, there would have been 125 pieces of each denomination. Some merchants only issued a few denominations and not a “full set” while others such as bakers, barbers, and saloons often issued a single denomination. At times, the larger saloons issued individual or combination tokens for a beer or drinks and cigars. Some tokens were punched or counterstamped and re-issued several times before being retired.

When merchants decided to retire their tokens, many were destroyed by dumping them into old wells, burying them, mutilating them, burning them, or letting the children use them as play money. If a cowboy on the range needed a button, washer, or a new rowel for his spur and a token was handy, it was holed and reworked to become the desired object. This combination of factors and practices relates directly to the number of surviving pieces available to collectors today.

Through the years, small caches or hoards of tokens have turned up. Under controlled releases of these tokens, the prices have been maintained. When a large number of pieces (say 15 or more) are dumped on the market at once, the price falls and the tokens are considered to be common. Collectors and dealers eventually absorb these hoards although it may take several years to do so. Many tokens that were considered common just ten years ago are now difficult to find while some of the larger hoards are still seen in dealers’ books and auctions.

Ideally, we would all like our tokens to be in pristine condition. In reality, most are well-worn, holed, engraved, clipped, cut, bent, mutilated, and dug. While these factors all affect the final value, it does not affect the desirability of the collector to own the piece, especially if it is from an unusual or hard to obtain town or county. Factors that do not affect the rarity or value of a token are size, shape, or number of words on either side.

The rarest coins have been accounted for virtually from the time they were minted and have been residing in large famous collections for many years. Most coin collectors will only see these pieces in pictures or books. Exonumists starting collections today should, in six months, have several tokens that are rare or unique. New collectors are always welcomed to the hobby very often being introduced, helped along, and guided by seasoned collectors.

As with coins, there are many ways to collect tokens. Some like having different denominations of the cent, nickel, dime, etc. or by material like white metal, brass, aluminum, etc. It could be by design such as pictorials, etc. or by the shape such as round, square, hexagon, etc. Many collectors like a particular business type by collecting only baker, barber, lumber, saloon, etc. or by the surname of Smith, Stone, Jones etc. Also, there are the manufacturers tokens from Heidemann, Ingle, BBC, etc. and last but not least, by county and/or state. The possibilities are virtually endless with no wrong way to do it.

One interesting group of tokens are called mavericks because they lack the town or state information to identify them. Many have just initials and are vague at best on who issued them. A lot of these tokens appeared from businesses operating on the fringes of society, where notoriety was not wanted but the token was still a necessity. These include brothel or whore tokens, which while they did exist most had only the lady’s name and no value stated. The brothel tokens being sold at shows and auctions today are fantasy tokens that appeared in the 1960’s and should never be considered genuine.

However one should decide to collect, it should be enjoyable. Too narrow of a field and one will soon get bored by never adding anything new to their collection. Too large a field and a starting collector will be overwhelmed. These beginners should not hesitate to look up collectors, introduce themselves, and ask for opinions of a particular token. Another source of material is from coin dealers, auctions, and antique shops. Should a collector turn up two of a new or previously unlisted piece, it may well be a nice trader to bargain with down the road.

David Durocher