Need Info On My First Milk Token

[Ed-D]

I've looked on tokencatalog.com and exonumia.com and didn't find any info on this token.

I know it's in rough shape but one side says 'Ray Samson Palm Springs' and the other side has 'Good For One Pint Milk'

Found it in North Texas. Any info would be great.

 

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[idahotokens]

Nice find! One fun thing about tokens is that they all have stories behind them - some are well-documented and others are not.

This appears to be from Ray T. Samson who was in Beaumont, CA in 1920. He was a milk and ice deliveryman there, and his business developed into being a retail and wholesale ice dealer there in 1930. Newspaper articles said that he built an ice plant in 1929 and maintained ice routes in Palm Springs and other neighboring towns. Beaumont is only about 30 miles west of Palm Springs. Samson was deputy sheriff as well around 1930 and became Constable of Beaumont in 1941.

My guess is that the token dates from around 1920 - I have not looked too far into it, but the little fleur-de-leis ornament above "Palm" is similar to others I have seen from about 1918. Samson may not have actually lived in Palm Springs, but had a truck route to there. The way these tokens were used was that customers would go to his office, or more likely to some store in town where he had made arrangements for them to represent him, and purchased milk tokens in advance and requested delivery. Then, as they needed milk, they would set empty bottles on their doorstep with tokens inside. The early-morning deliveryman would leave milk as indicated by the number of tokens. That way, the delivery person would not have to deal with cash, the empty bottles would come back, and neighborhood early risers wouldn't be able to pilfer money from the bottles.

Please consider posting your pics onto tokencatalog.com - or with your permission I can do that.

John in the Great 208

 

[Ed-D]

Thanks and great job! If you want to post it on token catalog that is fine with me. I really appreciate the background on this and hope I find more soon.