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I knew that it was a horse's bit, but I couldn't figure out why it was on there! LOL! Thanks for the insight!Clever token: Good for a 'bit', a horse bit, as shown; or 12.5 cents---as in a coin valued at one bit--1/8th of a dollar.
Don.......
These chinese coins are very old, in fact they were old when they were brought here. I Have found three now in the place I go, as well as an opium pipe bowl, and part of some kind of alchemy can thingy that has chinese writing on it. Dont know what it is yet... The Chinese were used both in the mines here and to build the railroad here, in fact Butte has a small block uptown that everyone calls China town. Butte back in the day had many towns named after the ethnic groups that came here to mine, i.e. "Finn town" "French town" "German gulch" "Meterville (Where the Italians lived)" etc. Even today Butte is very diversified because of the mining college here. I work at the airport and have sold tickets to people from all over the world heading back home or coming here to and from Montana Tech. Its funny, I was born here, grew up here, and yet only the past few year have I taken an interest in the history of Butte City, and some of the things I have learned have shocked me!!! This place is really a cool place to live!Congrats! Those look like Chinese "I Ching" not for spending but used like dice for gambling or predicting the future. I just found my first here a couple of weeks ago. If there aren't reproductions (and they don't look like it from here) they can be as old as the 10th century AD. I'm still researching these Maybe someone could correct me or have further inf., Trying to figure out why I found my at a rural public school built 1927. My current working theory is that it was brought home from the Pacific theater after WWII and guys son or daughter dropped it bringing it to school to show off. GL&HH!
Thanks again Idahotokens!Nice!! John A. Beer was a traveling salesman based in Billings (per the 1903 City Directory) and then in Butte (1905). The first I see him in Butte at this address was in the 1913 City Directory where he was proprietor of the cigar store at 79 W. Park where this token was used. Listings for the J. A. Beer cigar store continued into the 1920s.
As Don said, the token was good for 12½¢ - and that was the price of a "good" cigar (as opposed to a 5¢ stogie). The usual pricing was two for a quarter, so a customer wanting just one cigar at a time, got this in change for his quarter.
Please post pics of this one on Richard's Token Database - TokenCatalog.com - or with your permission to use the pic, I can do it.
John in the Great 208