Cool token...

[REVIER]

From the history I have tracked down from what is written on it I believe this is from between 1914 and the early 20's or so.
The Gates Corporation is the biggest privately held co. in the country with sales at 1.4 billion or more.
Back then their half sole invention...essentially the first retread, was a big moneymaker for them.
They were a priority product because they helped conserve rubber during the war years so the govenment allowed them to continue to buy rubber and make and sell their product.
At the end of WW1 the price of rubber plummeted from $1.25 per pound to fifteen cents which rendered this product obsolete immediately so they just went into making regular tires at that time.
Really interesting company history here....
http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/40/The-Gates-Corporation.html

I can't find any info or similar tokens anywhere on the web...not token sites, Ebay or anywhere so far.
Because of all this I am declaring this a way cool find and I am happy.

 

[jim tn]

Interesting find there Revier and neat to boot. HH jim tn

 

[REVIER]

Thank you.

 

[Sataro]

Very interesting token & old tokens are always a great find!

 

[nh-trekker]

That token must have rung up pretty high and got the old PULSE pounding??????

 

[REVIER]

That token must have rung up pretty high and got the old PULSE pounding??????

High into the 90's on the Red Racer and solid.
Thought it was going to be junk but it was much better.
I posted this on another forum and a mod over there got me in touch with a collector that is big into these "Good For" token types.
He seems to want it pretty bad, even in this shape.
He offered to trade me a VG to Fine Morgan dollar for this thing, then he sweetened that offer up and added a Walker half to the deal a few days later.
I thought hard about it and I was gonna do it but this seems to be an unknown variety or at least it is not listed in the Roy Woods Alabama token book...the bible for tokens from this state, and I am still not able to find any evidence of this thing's existence anywhere.
Not a mention.

I believe the coins he offered are actually worth more than this token even if it is rare but if I traded I would have some nice silver but common and nothing special that I would probably just throw them into a box and forget about them.
If I keep this I can put it in a display and be even more happy that I have in my possession something that very few others in this country own or have ever seen...maybe the only hunter that might have ever found one.
Sometimes the rarity of some of my finds is much more pleasing to me than actual monetary worth.

I turned him down for now but I left the door open and he understood and asked me to think of him first if I ever wanted to let it go or any other interesting tokens I come across also which was nice of him.

Funny how an old piece of aluminum can be so valuable to so many no matter how you want to figure it's actual worth.

 

[surfman]

"Sometimes the rarity of some of my finds is much more pleasing to me than actual monetary worth."


That right there is exactly how I feel about the stuff I find. I have people ask me all the time..."what's that worth?". I always say nothing. Yeah, I'd probably hold on to that. First time I've seen that one. I was going to ask what it was made of but you answered that. Real nice find. Congrats.