United States Token Class at the 2007 ANA Summer Seminar

By  Richard Jozefiak

 

At the 2007 ANA Summer Seminar, I selected the course “United States Tokens” to take because I wanted to learn more about an area of numismatics that I have an interest in to research and explore.  The BRNA scholarship gave me the opportunity to do this.

 

I specialize in Alaska tokens, but this is only one very small part of the token collecting field.  I took this class to expand my knowledge in this collecting area of numismatics that is so diverse and interesting.

 

The class instructor was the well known author, speaker, and token collector David Schenkman.  David is the foremost nationally known expert on U.S. tokens.  He writes a monthly column for Numismatist, and is the author of a number of books on different token topics.

 

There were six other students in the class with me.  With a small class size, this provided plenty of opportunities to interact and question the instructor and classmates.  My classmates were from all over the country.

 

The token topics covered by David Schenkman were many.  He started on how tokens have been manufactured over the years, and of the many different types of materials used in making tokens.

 

David bought into class a large number of tokens from his collection for us to see and study.  He gave out to students in class a number of tokens for us to keep.  He also discussed how people collect tokens, prices, and where to find reference material on the different token collecting areas.

 

Tokens have reflected major events in American history by their designs, materials, use, and values.  Tokens can be collected in many different ways, and unlike coins, there is no complete listing of all tokens produced in the U.S.  Tokens new to the collecting community are discovered all the time.  Most tokens are affordable, but assembling a nice collection can be challenging.

Tokens collected during time periods tend to follow the following years:

 

1.    1.    Early U.S. Tokens- prior to 1830’s

2.    2.    Hard Times Tokens- 1830’s to 1840’s

3.    3.    Pre-Civil War Tokens- 1850’s to 1860

4.    4.    Civil War Tokens- 1861 to 1865

5.    5.    Late 19th Century Tokens- 1866 to 1900

6.    6.    Early 20th Century Tokens- 1901 to World War I

7.    7.    War Years- About 1920’s to 1940’s

8.    8.    Late 20th Century Tokens- 1950’s to 2000 Modern Day Tokens

 

Each of the above time periods was discussed in class.

 

But collecting tokens by time period is not the only way collectors collect.  Many token collectors collect by a topic.  Some token collecting topic areas discussed in class were:

 

1. 1.    Collecting by city/town or state

2. 2.    Collecting by use:  transportation, tax payment, store cards, amusement, food stamps

3. 3.    Collecting by value: tokens values in less than a cent or more than a dollar, or by a denomination.

4. 4.    Collecting by shape (a number of tokens are not round)

5. 5.    Collecting by organization:  fraternal, store, company Collecting bi-metallic tokens

 

Each of the above token collecting areas was discussed in class.  The above list is only some of the topic areas people collect tokens of.  Token collectors tend to specialize collecting tokens of either a time period or topic area of interest.

 

During the class I gained a better appreciation of the collecting world of tokens, and the great numbers of tokens that have been used in the U.S. from the past to today.

 

The class helped me focus on token areas for future collecting that I want to explore.  I also gained a better appreciation on the history of tokens and token uses throughout the years.