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1916 Thomas Elder Lincoln White Feather Token?

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United States
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 Posted 07/11/2026  5:07 pm Show Profile   Bookmark this topic Add thelionwarrior to your friends list Get a Link to this Message Number of Subscribers
I acquired this years ago from a collector. Back then I couldn't find anything on it. Today, searched it up and it's coming up as a Thomas Elder White Feather token. Anyone have experience with these and can verify? Also weight shows .47 oz. Curious if anyone knows the weight on his pieces if this is correct what it is?


1916-Thomas-Elder-Lincoln-White-Feather-Token?
1916-Thomas-Elder-Lincoln-White-Feather-Token?
Edited by thelionwarrior
07/11/2026 5:50 pm
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hokiefan_82's Avatar
United States
3678 Posts
 Posted 07/11/2026  9:52 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add hokiefan_82 to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
In Thomas K. DeLorey's catalog on Thomas Elder tokens and medals (originally published in the June and July 1980 editions of The Numismatist), this token is listed as DeLorey-55. It was issued in April 1916 in a variety of compositions (silver, german silver, copper, brass, aluminum, oreide, fiber and white metal). Diameter is 30.8mm, but the weights of the different versions are not listed. The full description can be found on page 1609 of the July 1980 issue of The Numismatist.

Here's a link to the Newman Numismatic Portal if you want to take a look at those issues of The Numismatist:
https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/publi...isplayAmt=50
Member of SPMC, FCCB, ANA and ANS.
My U.S. Classic Commemorative Complete Set: https://www.NGCcoin.com/registry/co...sets/278741/
My U.S. Fractional Note Set: https://notes.www.collectors-societ...eSetID=34188
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United States
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 Posted 07/11/2026  10:16 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add thelionwarrior to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Thanks! Appreciate the info! So how would I be able to get confirmation on which version this is? I can't find any weights and only pic I seen online was on ebay and seemed to be a different color than this one. I saw NGC seems to have graded a few but no pics or weights either.
Edited by thelionwarrior
07/11/2026 10:18 pm
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hokiefan_82's Avatar
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3678 Posts
 Posted Yesterday   4:22 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add hokiefan_82 to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
My first thought would be a specific gravity test, or take it to a coin dealer or jeweler for an XRF test (not sure what is typically charged for that, though).

Is the token silver colored? It's kind of hard to tell from the reflections on the token in your pics.
Member of SPMC, FCCB, ANA and ANS.
My U.S. Classic Commemorative Complete Set: https://www.NGCcoin.com/registry/co...sets/278741/
My U.S. Fractional Note Set: https://notes.www.collectors-societ...eSetID=34188
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 Posted Yesterday   5:31 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add thelionwarrior to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
It is silver colored. Just not sure what the makeup is. Doesn't feel light like aluminum to me. Kinda thinking it's the German silver but I've never heard of that till this and don't have anything to compare it to. Was hoping somewhere there would be some weights to verify what it is but you're probably right. Maybe I can find a dealer with one of those machines. I'm just curious now. Or I guess I could send it to NGC. I do have some free money I think.
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Sap's Avatar
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 Posted Yesterday   9:03 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Sap to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
"German silver" is a fancy marketing name for nickel-brass, an alloy of copper, nickel and zinc. In-hand it kind-of looks silvery but it does tend towards a yellowish colour, especially when photographed, which makes me think that this is what your coin is made of.

"Oreide" is a fancy name for brass. I don't think your piece is yellow enough to be categorized as this.

"White metal" is a soft tin-lead-zinc alloy, akin to pewter, which was once used to produce cheap tokens and medals; it largely went out of fashion once aluminium became readily available in the early 1900s. White metal looks bright silvery "white" when new but quickly darkens on oxidation to grey-black; I would expect a white metal example of this medal to be greyer than this.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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hokiefan_82's Avatar
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 Posted Yesterday   10:11 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add hokiefan_82 to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
For the weight you specified, .47 ounce, it really couldn't be aluminum. For a token of that diameter, I'd expect a weight of around 4 grams or so if it was aluminum.

I agree with Sap it's most likely german silver. On the off-chance it could be silver, there is a fairly significant difference in specific gravity between german silver and silver (around 8.6 vs. 10.5 for pure silver) so that would be one way to be more sure about it. I'm not sure if the silver version of this token was pure silver, but even sterling silver (.925) and coin silver (.900) have SG of over 10.3.

A specific gravity measurement is very easy to do if you have a digital scale accurate to .01g. There are a lot of videos on YouTube which show you how to do it.
Member of SPMC, FCCB, ANA and ANS.
My U.S. Classic Commemorative Complete Set: https://www.NGCcoin.com/registry/co...sets/278741/
My U.S. Fractional Note Set: https://notes.www.collectors-societ...eSetID=34188
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