Icewing
Silver Member
- Jan 5, 2016
- 2,633
- 5,494
- Detector(s) used
- Minelab Equinox 900 / Garrett PropointerAT.
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
Yesterday I hunted a couple of empty lots where there used to be houses and I found these two items, but I had no idea how cool they were till I cut them cleaned up and did some research.
The first I believe is a coal miners identification tag issued by "The Victor-American Fuel Co.", which in itself is not that rare. What makes it special is it's from a tiny ghost town known as Radiant, Colorado. I have yet to find another example of this tag.
Bright Beginning: Ghost town Radiant was once a busy mining camp - Canon City Daily Record
The second I thought was just another merchant trade token, but apparently not. It reads "The Brunswick-Balke Collender Compy" and a picture of a pool table on one side and "G. and G. Good for 3 1/2c (cents) in Trade" on the other side. The J. M. Brunswick Manufacturing Company opened for business 1845 primary building carriages, but soon got into building pool tables. After a series of mergers and expansions they became the Brunswick-Balke Collender Company in 1884, thus giving and earliest possible date for this token.
I have searched several online resources and auction sites and found several Brunswick-Balke (saloon?) tokens from 5-25 cents but not a single mention of this 3 1/2 cent scalloped edge token. Now I'm starting to think it's possible that this is a new discovery, or at least very rare.
I'd like to ask that those of you with books on tokens check to see if you can find out if this one is listed.
The first I believe is a coal miners identification tag issued by "The Victor-American Fuel Co.", which in itself is not that rare. What makes it special is it's from a tiny ghost town known as Radiant, Colorado. I have yet to find another example of this tag.
Bright Beginning: Ghost town Radiant was once a busy mining camp - Canon City Daily Record
The second I thought was just another merchant trade token, but apparently not. It reads "The Brunswick-Balke Collender Compy" and a picture of a pool table on one side and "G. and G. Good for 3 1/2c (cents) in Trade" on the other side. The J. M. Brunswick Manufacturing Company opened for business 1845 primary building carriages, but soon got into building pool tables. After a series of mergers and expansions they became the Brunswick-Balke Collender Company in 1884, thus giving and earliest possible date for this token.
I have searched several online resources and auction sites and found several Brunswick-Balke (saloon?) tokens from 5-25 cents but not a single mention of this 3 1/2 cent scalloped edge token. Now I'm starting to think it's possible that this is a new discovery, or at least very rare.
I'd like to ask that those of you with books on tokens check to see if you can find out if this one is listed.
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