DIGGER27
In Memory Of
This is cool.
A Wyatt Johnson $1.00 off of a $20.00 cash purchase token.
It's huge and aluminum and I can't find any other like it on any token sites or anywhere else on the web so who knows...it might be a rare one.
Wyatt Johnson is a large automobile dealership group now, I suspect they have been around selling tires, auto parts and who knows what else since the early 1900's.
The Gates Corporation is one of the largest privately held companies in the U.S. with sales of about 1.5 billion...It is the world's largest non-tire rubber company...now.
It had a rocky start but the owner was smart so it grew big.
Interesting history here...
http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/40/The-Gates-Corporation.html
See the words "half sole" in the middle of the words Gates Tires and Tubes?
This was a rubber and fabric cover they invented in 1914 that could be cemented on a worn tire and extend its life...the first retreads.
Through WW1 the govt. still allowed him to by and use rubber because his half sole was classified a priority product because it preserved rubber.
By the end of the war the price of rubber dropped from $1.25 lb to fifteen cents a pound so it immediately rendered this product obsolete and he went full on into making regular tires instead and eventually way more rubber based products.
Because of this history I gotta believe this token is from between 1914 and 1918 or not too much longer after that.
I am going to call this a great and way cool find.
A Wyatt Johnson $1.00 off of a $20.00 cash purchase token.
It's huge and aluminum and I can't find any other like it on any token sites or anywhere else on the web so who knows...it might be a rare one.
Wyatt Johnson is a large automobile dealership group now, I suspect they have been around selling tires, auto parts and who knows what else since the early 1900's.
The Gates Corporation is one of the largest privately held companies in the U.S. with sales of about 1.5 billion...It is the world's largest non-tire rubber company...now.
It had a rocky start but the owner was smart so it grew big.
Interesting history here...
http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/40/The-Gates-Corporation.html
See the words "half sole" in the middle of the words Gates Tires and Tubes?
This was a rubber and fabric cover they invented in 1914 that could be cemented on a worn tire and extend its life...the first retreads.
Through WW1 the govt. still allowed him to by and use rubber because his half sole was classified a priority product because it preserved rubber.
By the end of the war the price of rubber dropped from $1.25 lb to fifteen cents a pound so it immediately rendered this product obsolete and he went full on into making regular tires instead and eventually way more rubber based products.
Because of this history I gotta believe this token is from between 1914 and 1918 or not too much longer after that.
I am going to call this a great and way cool find.
