Calling all Token Gurus! Help needed.

fishbone3d

Full Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2011
Messages
204
Reaction score
3
Golden Thread
0
Location
Indiana
Detector(s) used
Teknetics T2 SE, Whites Prizm III, Bounty Hunter
I have two tokens that I have found recently. The copper one says E.A.J. Good for 5c at the bar. I can tell you about the area where it was from. It was found after our woods was logged in the logging ruts. The woods is in close proximity to Atherton Indiana. Atherton is nothing more than a few houses now, but was a booming coal town in the 1800's. In the late 1800's it died out. The second token I found says O.H. Martin Heckland Indiana on the front. On the back, it says Good for 1.00 in merchandise. The only information that I have ,is that Heckland Indiana was a small coal mining town that was renamed Sandcut Indiana at the beginning of the century. They are both north of Terre Haute. I have attached 4 photos of the fronts and back. I really hope that I could get some information about these Tokens. They are driving me nuts! :help: Thank you all in advance for any information.
 

Attachments

  • eajatherton.webp
    eajatherton.webp
    15.4 KB · Views: 224
  • eajatherton2.webp
    eajatherton2.webp
    16.6 KB · Views: 216
  • ohmartin1.webp
    ohmartin1.webp
    30.6 KB · Views: 213
  • ohmartin2.webp
    ohmartin2.webp
    26 KB · Views: 223
The silver token looks to be burned. I also found a few pieces of melted jewelry at the site. The building burnt down in the early 1900's. I am guessing it might even be aluminum.
 

Upvote 0
$1 token is most likely aluminum. The tokens we dig around here made out of it look just like that one.

Don't know anything about the first one other than both these tokens are cool.
 

Upvote 0
Thank you for the compliment! I have dug around for a while on the history. The first one has me beat. The silver colored one is at least from a known past town. Either way, they are driving me insane! ;D
 

Upvote 0
The first one is brass. Initials-only tokens are tough to attribute and take hours of directory research. The style is from ca. 1900 - definitely pre-prohibition since it was from a bar. The second one is aluminum and is of the style generally used by general stores. This one is listed in Grant's 2008 Indiana Token update, but with no date or business type. Especially for the first one, to get help attributing it (more eyes = better chances), you might want to post a good, in-focus photo on tokencatalog.com.
John in ID
 

Upvote 0
I found an O.H. Martin reference in the City Directory Terre Haute and Vigo County 1901-02

wakhvp.jpg
 

Upvote 0
Very neat find. I know that it is about the time that Heckland turned to Sandcut.
 

Upvote 0
Here is the only map reference that I have of Heckland. 1880's to 1890's. Heckland is pretty scarce in literature.
 

Attachments

  • heckland2.webp
    heckland2.webp
    34 KB · Views: 173
Upvote 0

Top Member Reactions

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom