My first token - a big local one - plus a bonus and a tiny elephant

Iggyks

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A big city-owned lot near me that was formerly a farmyard just got mowed Friday and I always go back over it after a new mowing. I hit the fragment that I was pretty sure was a trade token first, then the big 50-center within six or eight feet of the fragment was readable right out of the ground. The E.G. Davis General Merchandise store here in Leonardville burned in 1917; it's possible that someone tossed them in the grass after learning the store would not rebuild. Smaller one was a ten-center. The little elephant I found a few hours earlier under a big tree at my work, different town. Heavy for size, guess it's lead. I'd found a tax token and a pinball token but wanted a local trade token bad so I'm quite happy!
 

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Very cool token and a half! It looks like the ground could have been a little nicer but it still has great detail and eye appeal. That, and it's an old store token.....not much else to say! Great digs

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Yeah, still unsure how much more i want to clean it. This is soaking in Dawn and water, toothbrush scrub and a little SOS pad scrub.
 
great finds... looks like its charred from the fire... I use water and toothpick on those finds, sometimes my soft brass wire brush... SOS and dawn is pretty rough on those in my experience and I always regret trying them.
 
great finds... looks like its charred from the fire... I use water and toothpick on those finds, sometimes my soft brass wire brush... SOS and dawn is pretty rough on those in my experience and I always regret trying them.

I'm holding off on any more cleaning with those methods. Got in a hurry because I was taking them to show to a local historian at noon today.
 
Went back looking for the other half of that ten-center... no luck but dug a 1904 Indian!
 
Congrats on the awesome local tokens, Iggy! Great that you've already been able to research a little history for the business, too! Nice bonus to score the Indian while looking for the rest of the 10 cent token, too. Did the historian have any added info for the merchant?
 
Congrats on the awesome local tokens, Iggy! Great that you've already been able to research a little history for the business, too! Nice bonus to score the Indian while looking for the rest of the 10 cent token, too. Did the historian have any added info for the merchant?

Well, I approached him while he was having lunch lol so he may have left out a few details. The library at the county seat has the Leonardville paper on microfilm so I plan to try to find some period ads for the store. We were a railroad boomtown and at one time had five general stores competing for business. Wonder if they all had tokens?
 
Well, I approached him while he was having lunch lol so he may have left out a few details. The library at the county seat has the Leonardville paper on microfilm so I plan to try to find some period ads for the store. We were a railroad boomtown and at one time had five general stores competing for business. Wonder if they all had tokens?

I had some extra time today, and like I said, I love tokens - so I did a search on E.G. Davison and turned up a bunch of interesting articles, some of which are from the "The Leonardville Monitor", others are from elsewhere. Looks like your token is definitely from 1915-1917, the only years he was in business in Leonardville. He never rebuilt the store there - he's listed as a grocery in Topeka by July 1918. I'll be happy to send you copies of 8 of the most interesting articles that I found - just PM me your email, and I'll send them to you as pdf files :grin:
 
I had some extra time today, and like I said, I love tokens - so I did a search on E.G. Davison and turned up a bunch of interesting articles, some of which are from the "The Leonardville Monitor", others are from elsewhere. Looks like your token is definitely from 1915-1917, the only years he was in business in Leonardville. He never rebuilt the store there - he's listed as a grocery in Topeka by July 1918. I'll be happy to send you copies of 8 of the most interesting articles that I found - just PM me your email, and I'll send them to you as pdf files :grin:

Awesome! I used to have hewspapers.com and they didn't have the local paper, where in the world did you find it?
 
Awesome! I used to have hewspapers.com and they didn't have the local paper, where in the world did you find it?

They must've updated since you had the subscription - all were from newspapers.com. The Leonardville Monitor, Toronto Republican, Topeka Daily Capital, Russell Springs Leader, and the Democratic Messenger (Eureka) are just the ones I pulled articles out of...not sure if there are any others that are local to you. Might be worth checking them out again for you
 
They must've updated since you had the subscription - all were from newspapers.com. The Leonardville Monitor, Toronto Republican, Topeka Daily Capital, Russell Springs Leader, and the Democratic Messenger (Eureka) are just the ones I pulled articles out of...not sure if there are any others that are local to you. Might be worth checking them out again for you

Had to let my subscription lapse. I attempted to pm my email to you.. Did you get it!?
 
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