Any info on this token?

cudamark

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I see it's listed in Tokencatelog.com, but, it just says it's a maverick. Anyone here know anything further about it, such as location of Eddie's pool hall, and/or approximate years it was used? There are all sorts of Fast Eddie's pool halls around the country, but, just Eddie's seems a bit limited. I don't know of any locally, but, 100 years ago.....who knows?
 

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It’s in great condition. I imagine that 5 cents went quite a ways at that time.
 

I’m reading where pool tokens were often a nickel in value in the very early 1900s. This was due to table “rent” being 5 cents per hour at that time. Possibly 1900-1915. Of course they were also good for drinks as well.
 

I’m reading where pool tokens were often a nickel in value in the very early 1900s. This was due to table “rent” being 5 cents per hour at that time. Possibly 1900-1915. Of course they were also good for drinks as well.

Pool & Billiards halls in larger towns and cities were typically charging 5c per hour for table use until the economic “Panic of 1893” when prices rose sharply. By 1900 many were charging 25c per hour or more, but you could still find 5c tables in seedier joints or rural areas.

This picture is of Madison Street in Chicago c.1907 and note that above the “Troy Billiard Hall” sign at the right it says “Billiards 30c per Hour”.

Billiards.JPG


There was another jump in prices when WWI broke out, with prices reaching as much as 50c per hour and then a short-lived dip in prices during the 1930s to as low as 10c per hour. Sometimes, coins or tokens were required to automatically release the balls for play or start a timer that controlled the light above the table but, more often than not, you just paid at the bar and the proprietor policed your time at the table.

At least until the 1930s, smaller establishments often had coin or token operated tables priced at 5c but these weren’t full-size tables and were more of an amusement nature designed for bars and saloons. Pretty much all of the kinds of establishments that had tables were also places where you could buy a “5 cent cigar” and often these were available from coin or token operated vending machines.
 

I know there was an old Eddie's Pool Hall in Bloomington, Illinois but don't know if that is where the token is from.
 

Sorry, I don't know any details but it's very nice find !
 

I know there was an old Eddie's Pool Hall in Bloomington, Illinois but don't know if that is where the token is from.
Perhaps it was Hopedale and not Bloomington like I thought.

Screenshot 2023-12-26 at 1.24.08 PM.jpg
 

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