unknown tokens

[93vector]

I found these old "tokens" while metal detecting in Rhode Island at the site of an old house recently torn down. Does anyone have any ideas of what they may be?? Any thoughts would be appreciated.
The letters on the bottom of the larger one are GW.

 

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[idahotokens]

The first one is a trade token, and since it does not carry the city and state where it was used, classified as a "maverick". Maverick tokens can often be attributed with some degree of certainty, but ones like this with just initials are almost impossible. My guess is that it is from some bar called "The Triangle" around 1900-1915 (or whenever Prohibition was put into effect in the area), and the proprietor's initials were G. W. It looks like it started life as a 5¢ token and was revalued to 25¢ later by stamping a 2 in front of the 5.

It is a long shot, especially since it may have migrated from outside the area where you found it, but you could visit the library of the nearest town and see if they have old city directories from early in the last century. Then, check listings for Triangle (most of the early directories didn't list bars by their name) or go through the W section to see if you can find someone with those initials who operated a bar. This type of hands-on research is your only hope for a maverick with as few clues as this one offers.

The second one looks to me to be a tool check (rather than a token) from some businessman with initials J. H. R. - see the recent discussion in the Tokens and Tags forum at http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,67031.0.html

To attribute this one would also take some library research.

John in ID