I picked up a few coal mining scrip tokens and see that @TNG posted some a few years ago (
) on this thread. Unfortunately the posted pics have vanished, but I believe that we have at least one in common. Below the pics I've included info from TNG's post, which he also posted on the tokencatalog listing for the Hiawatha token.
Companies often paid workers with scrip, which could only be used at company stores (where goods had inflated prices).
Carbon Emery Stores Company - Good for 1 Exploder. Hiawatha, Utah.
Carbon Emery Stores Company - Good for 1 Exploder. Carbon, Utah.
Carbon Coal and Coke Company. Good for 12½¢ Worth Powder. Cokedale, Colorado.
Quote:This is a "Good For" token at the Carbon Emery Stores Co. Company store.
It appears it could be a detonator, fuze, blasting cap or good for a stick of dynamite for use in the coal mines.
What an "EXPLODER" may be? I don't know exactly but my best guess is a blasting component.
Hiawatha, Utah founded around 1910 on a cattle ranch where about 1905 coal was discovered.
The Carbon Coal and Coke Co established a mining business there in Carbon County. Hiawatha was a company town. The United States Fuel Company, which owned the Hiawatha mine and had its headquarters there, essentially ran the town.
In the 1930's over 1500 people lived there. After the 1940s, production began to drop and people moved away. The population fell from 439 in 1960, to 43 in 1990. For about 60 years mines were worked and provided a living for the thriving people of Hiawatha.
It is a ghost town today.
With the coal veins becoming depleted, homes and businesses were abandoned.
Hiawatha Mines closed in 1991, the city was disincorporated on November 20, 1992 and the town was boarded up. Most buildings were torn down.
It is estimated that around three or four families still currently live in Hiawatha.
http://tokencatalog.com/token_recor...td_id=174560
Cokedale is a Statutory Town located in Las Animas County, Colorado (the far southeast of the state) with a population of 127 at the 2020 United States Census. It is a former coal mining town - the mine shut down in 1947.