These "Good For" Tokens were minted in about 1983 by the late Del Romines. He struck samples of them from three different obverse dies and one reverse. I waited too long to order and by the time I decided to got with it, he had already turned the dies down and made new dies from them.
According to Del, only one of each of these tokens exists. He said that even his wife Joyce, who collected at least one of everything he made, got none.
Up until recently, when I went in and looked at them after 30 years, I had forgotten that I had this many pieces. I only remembered one in aluminum and two lead splashers.
As it turns out, there were three different obverse dies used with a common reverse. Obverse Die-1 was later modified creating two distinct obverse varieties for this one die.
They were all struck in aluminum (except the lead splashers) without a collar and vary in exact diameter with the average just over 34 mm for the aluminum specimens.
Obverse Die-1-A, was used for the lead splasher which shows Romines' designer's initials at the base of bust. It and Die-1-B are distinguished from the other two obverse dies by stars that separate "GOOD FOR $2 IN TRADE", which wraps along the upper rim, from "ON E/V COINS", which runs along the lower rim. It measures 38.27 mm.* Total mintage = 1.
Reverse Die-1, used for all tokens. The lead splasher of the reverse measures 36.7 mm.* Total mintage = 1.
Obverse Die 1-B, is a modification of Die-1 where Romines machined the base of bust down taking his initials with it. It measures 33.47 mm.* Total mintage = 1.
Obverse Die-2, exhibits the doubled LIBERTY far crisper and clearer than on the other two obverse dies. Romines' designer's initials are easily seen at the base of bust. The legend is spelled out as GOOD FOR $2 IN TRADE/ON VAR./ERROR COINS. It measures 34.55 mm.* Total mintage = 1.
Obverse Die-3, shows LIBERTY poorly defined, the central design is surrounded by a well-defined circle, the legend about the rim reads: GOOD FOR $2 ON ERROR/VAR. COINS .. It measures 34.2 mm.* Total mintage = 1.
The final piece was double-struck with a planchet set on top of the obverse of the token after the first strike and driven into it on the second strike. Del said this was an actual error. Other than the lead splashers, they were all struck on aluminum slugs. I think this was struck with Obverse Die-1-A. It measures 35.7 mm.* Total mintage for all errors = 1.
*Measurements taken with calipers from 12:00 O'clock and 6:00 O'clock + 3:00 O'clock and 9:00 O'clock divided by 2.
Posted 04/28/2015 02:18 am
