A Continuing Thread ~ Post Your Tokens, Medals, Exonumia Acquisitions

999fine, very nice purchase!

999fine:

I truly enjoy your contributions and commentary. That is a beautiful medal and outstanding packaging.

Thanks for sharing!

1930's Coal Mining Explosive Token
Hiawatha, Utah
UT-MX-21a First issue Brass 28mm ( without the G.L. Stamp Co additional lettering )

The other issue has this small lettering to the right of ONE, which mine does not.
So far, I have noticed they are seen equally with and without.



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.

Very nice!

1909 Hudson Fulton Celebration Citizens Committee Medal

The obverse shows a standing female with "Wings of Thought" head gear, outstretched arms with Fulton's Clermont in left hand and Hudsons Half Moon in the other.
In the background it has the New York Skyline. Legend reads HUDSON-FULTON - CELEBRATION. The reverse shows the conjoined bust of Henry Hudson & Robert Fulton in the center. Legend reads HENRY HUDSON 1609 ROBERT FULTON 1807 and the year 1909.
This medal is listed in the Hibbler Kappen So Called Dollar catalog as HK-380 and is 1 1/2 inches in diameter. It would have been part of a ribbon at one time, worn by a committee member and retains the loop.
The Celebration was created and organized by the Celebration Commission, consisting of a large group of wealthy and influential New Yorkers, such as J.P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, and others.
The Commission, over the course of its long planning period (from 1905 to 1909), established dozens of committees to oversee every detail of the event.

I have 5 1909 Hudson Fulton medals now and various ephemera, non sport cards, tobacco cards, trade cards and a couple postcards. This is what my most recent postcard looks like with a Dutch girl and Uncle Sam in the forefront of the Hudson River parade.
There are many resources online about the historic celebration and I include my medals in my Exposition collection. My first post with a medal has a bit of information posted here http://goccf.com/t/301479&whichpage=28#2675962
1909 was a fantastic year! In the East we had the Hudson Fulton Celebration and out west in Washington State we had the Alaska-Yukon Pacific Exposition.

1897 TENNESSEE CENTENNIAL EXPOSITION
SO-CALLED DOLLAR HK-274

The City of Nashville first undertook the construction of a full-scale replica of the
Parthenon for the Tennessee Centennial Exposition of 1897. It still stands today as an art museum and is the only remaining building of the expo.

The exposition celebrated 100 years of Tennessee's statehood a year after its true centennial birthday of 1896. Centennial organizers blamed lack of funds, slow construction and the presidential election of 1896 for the delayed start date.
Once started, the Tennessee Centennial was a huge success with approximately 1.8 million people in attendance over the six-month period.
These medals are tough to acquire and tickets to the exposition are expensive and rare.
Perhaps because the exposition was less popular than those we are more familiar with.
Honestly, I never even heard of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition until I became well into collecting medals and tickets.

On one side is the Philadelphia Mint Building and perhaps the medal was struck on the grounds at the U.S. Treasury Exhibit of which I have found a picture here.

My first medal. I like how you can get a 150 year old medal in high relief unc for under $100.