Enlgish token found in Utah?

[carcusrex]

Hi, I found this large brass token thingy near the location of Saltair Pavilion beach resort along the shoreline of the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Saltair was built in the early 1890"s and finally burnt down for good in 1970. It reads "Vickers sons & Maxim L, Erith" I know this is from a English company that built things like battleships. The company changed its name in 1897. What is it a token or a maybe some sort of number plate that was attached to some sort of equipment?

Thanks
carcusrex

 

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[Silver Searcher]

They made various tokens like that one...cool find

SS

 

[nhbenz]

This site speculates on the usage of these, photos half way down page, with text a bit further down; https://sites.google.com/site/malstokens/factory

 

[CRUSADER]

Factory tokens are like many other industrial tokens. They were a way for the employer/owner to rip off the employee. Pay them in tokens & only allow them to buy goods/food in the factory shop. Therefore keeping them in near slavery with over inflated goods. (the money therefore never left the owner)

 

[carcusrex]

Thank you for that link nhbenz. I think i will send a picture of mine to that web site.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Maxim was an American who went to England to find funding for his design from the Vickers Company. Built one of the more famous and successful machine guns of WWI - the Vickers Machine Gun. No idea if your token is somehow related to one but that would be a likely bet.