I found this in a bag of foreign coins I bought. I have found a Virginia maryland coal Corp with a mine names willard. Could this be a error coin. Any idea of a value. It is about the same size as dime. Thank you
That's mining scrip from Shinnston, West Virginia from the early 20th century, during the company town period. Companies like Virginia Maryland Coal (the coin is abbreviated) created whole communities to house workers for their mines; being the early 20th century rather less attention was spent on anything other than the essentials to ensure the men showed up to work in the mine. Scrip played a very important part in this equation; workers were paid only in scrip and had to use it to buy goods and services at company stores (with inflated prices). It was nearly impossible to convert scrip to US dollars, which kept workers beholden to their employer.
I have no idea on value; however, you've got a piece that intersects numismatic interest and historical interest. I would think that intersection would make it more, rather than less, interesting to a wider field of collectors. The reference you want is Edkins Catalogue of United States Coal Company Scrip, Volume II, which was recently updated and published by the National Scrip Collectors Association. It doesn't appear as if it has been digitized and I don't have it, or I'd scan you the relevant page.
Thank you for the information. I did try and post it here. I may have to do it on a home computer, I kept getting error messages. I was surprised to find it in the mixed bag also. I will definitely buy another bag when he gets more. When I get a chance I plan on uploading my finds.
From Edkins Catalogue of United States Coal Company Store Script, Third edition, volume II, West Virginia, p265:
Shinnston 2579: #H1, B (brass), 18 (mm), Round, Solid, R-10 (1 to 4 known).
Цитата: "numisquare"From Edkins Catalogue of United States Coal Company Store Script, Third edition, volume II, West Virginia, p265:
Shinnston 2579: #H1, B (brass), 18 (mm), Round, Solid, R-10 (1 to 4 known).
JEALOUS!!!
Sadly, while I really love tokens and scrip, my collection is far too scattered to make it worthwhile to purchase the references. I have a very obliging university library down the road that puts up with me spreading out over a table as long as it's not finals.
New to swapping - bear with me! More coins up for swap soon.
This script is without an illustration in Edkins but has the legends of each script fully written. Edkins has 326 pages of script with about 20 tokens per page (about 6500 script). There are 15 plates with about 5 to 9 script per page (less than 100 illustrated), a small fraction of the number listed in the text.
Цитата: "numisquare"This script is without an illustration in Edkins but has the legends of each script fully written. Edkins has 326 pages of script with about 20 tokens per page (about 6500 script). There are 15 plates with about 5 to 9 script per page (less than 100 illustrated), a small fraction of the number listed in the text.
thank you, really new to all this. I have a few chucky cheese tokens, a beer token from when I was stationed in Germany and now the coal scrip
