Anyone collect coins?

[hosman321]

I am interested in the tokens this seller has, specifically this one but I am a bit confused. Are they replicas? The pictures makes them out to be in great shape and still shiny. Although it does say they are not replicas in a way, just want to make sure they are not playing with their words.
http://cgi.ebay.com/OLD-ENGLISH-1788-KING-GEORGE-III-Half-GUINEA-TOKEN-/120737826902?pt=Coins_US_Individual&hash=item1c1c890856

[hosman321]

Hmm this kind of answers my question.
http://www.24carat.co.uk/medallioninmemoryofthegoodolddaysframe.html

[mariok54]

Hi Hosman,

Seems you answered your own Question.I had a pile of these when I was a lad, and they really are Worthless, apart for their novelty value.
What is amazing is that so-called reputable sellers still try to pass them off as some type of Token that was in common circulation. I've even read somewhere that this exact copy was still being reproduced at the start of the 20th c.

[hosman321]

I just can't believe that seller has such good feedback when they are saying that those coins were struck in the 1700s. I think ebay should ban dishonest people like that. But they would probably lose most of their sellers.

[mart]

I stay away from any "antique" where the seller has more than 10 available !!

[mariok54]

I think that some naive people confuse them with Tokens that employees were given by certain employers and which could only be spent in the company's store. Now some of those can be worth quite a bit of money. You had something similar in the States, I think, only because an old Michelle Shocked song comes to mind.

[waywardangler]

The Michelle Shocked reference is way too esoteric and obtuse for me, mario. I even Googled her and none, I repeat, none, of her song titles even rang a bell (I do not ever remember even hearing her name as a singer/songwriter before). Quite frankly, I am shocked you would have even used such a token reference for a store card.  

[mariok54]

Apologies Wayward   

It was also a Johnny Cash track .. but I only ever had the Michelle Shocked  album... and she is from your side of the Pond

The track is The L&N Don't Stop Here Anymore 

I used to think my daddy was a black man
With script enough to buy the company store
But now he goes to town with empty pockets
And his face is white as a February snow

And it was reference to 'script', which were pretty much the same as the old tokens that workers here received.

[waywardangler]

store card noun
a token bearing the name of a business, often exchangeable for a particular item.

I know who Johnny Cash was but not Michelle Shocked. I am not familiar with the term "script" for token use but I am familiar with the term "store card" especially during the Civil War era. Some of those are worth $$$.

[mariok54]

Funny how the term 'store card' has made a come back, still daylight robbery, but now charging 20 - 30% interest.

Found this interesting essay on coal mine script, but he also calls it 'scip'

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~kyperry3/Scripts_by_Freddie.html

[waywardangler]

Interesting article. I have some tokens that were given out by local stores/taverns/restaurants in the 1930s-60s.  Mavericks are tokens without a city, state name on them. I have a couple of those also. Mavericks are not very desirable.  Collectors here want tokens for their state, nearby towns, or local taverns/bars. Some of my tokens are aluminum, brass, and newer plastic and are round, oval, square or 6-sided. Plastic ones are "bar chips" you get because you couldn't keep up and you have to take the chips home to spend the next time you are at that bar. Plastic bar chips are still used here and are not collectible unless it is for a bar/tavern no longer in existence or had a name change.

[mart]

Script was used as "paper money" at company stores !!  I have only heard of it,, have never seen it !! Was common in mining towns !! Frequently never covered the  high prices the stores charged !! Remember the song "Sixteen Tons" ??  He owed his soul to the company store !!

[fancypants]

Through the years , I've run across the colloquial term several times , ref'ing to these items , as 'credits' or 'token credits' , in much older times in the U.S. .

Credit - derived from the Latin 'credo' - "I Believe" .

[mariok54]

Script was used as "paper money" at company stores !!  I have only heard of it,, have never seen it !! Was common in mining towns !! Frequently never covered the  high prices the stores charged !! Remember the song "Sixteen Tons" ??  He owed his soul to the company store !!

Sixteen Tons!  Good old Frankie Laine, and how can we forget him singing about moving on them old doggies!

[waywardangler]

Mario, you are a wealth of musical musings...ever think about entering a trivia contest?