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 Replies: 10 / Views: 5,964 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
560 Posts |
I just came back from a trip across Nevada and found a number of replica brothel tokens in an antique store. I ended up not buying them but became interested in researching authentic ones. I've done some searches but only seem to find replicas. Can anyone point me in the direction of some information? Thanks!
Moved to Token & Exonumia Forum - Sap
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1082 Posts |
They come up occasionally on ebay, and I've seen magazine ads for them once in awhile in coin magazines, but that's the only places I really know of. |
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
2830 Posts |
G'day, I've got a couple of European BTs. They were replicas, in brass, of earlier French gold coins. They were good quality - as replicas - but wouldn't fool anyone because of the difference in weight.
There was another variety, which didn't resemble any specific coin: they had the name & or address of the premises. Sometimes they carried interesting images. I haven't collected that type. I don't know of any reference books, but wouldn't be surprized to learn that they had been catalogued.
Peter in Oz
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Moderator
 United States
23516 Posts |
I was posting a link for brothel tokens for you to look at but some of the links had tokens with pictures that were not quite family friendly.
If you search brothel tokens on google, you will find many tokens - not copies- and a lot of history about them
rggoodie
aka Richard
"catch em doing something right"
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
12437 Posts |
Heh, I have one from Cripple Creek, CO in my exonumia collection. I am not sure if it is a fantasy piece or not but it is fairly crude compared to many of the known fantasy pieces I have seen, I guess I need to do some research on it  |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1248 Posts |
i had one some time ago in a lot of other coins
it said Beaver Creek - good for one hour nookie
rather funny that one would have to buy a token to get some action..must have been part of the Wild West?
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
2830 Posts |
quote: "rather funny that one would have to buy a token to get some action ..."
- it was explained to me that the role of the BT was to avoid the customer handing cash directly to the service-provider. For two reasons: first, because the law in some places made it illegal to "pay for it", and handing over a token avoided this issue, apparently.
Secondly, so the house-management could account for the activities of the service-providers, when the reckoning-time came.
The second is an issue common across many diverse industries; while the first is peculiar to this activity.
Peter in Oz
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
560 Posts |
Thanks for all the information everyone!
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New Member
United States
44 Posts |
I have a reference book on the topic. If you would like to purchase a copy, the title is "Cathouse Connection, Guide for Brothel Collectibles", 2nd edition. copyright 2003, David R. Whalen. If I recall correctly, I bought my copy from Ken Potter. Google his name and you will find his contact info.
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
2830 Posts |
thankyou for that: is the Whalen book about the U.s.a. only, or does it include European material also ?
Peter in Oz
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New Member
United States
37 Posts |
George Ohr, the so-called mad potter of Biloxi, is famous mainly for his unusual pottery, but he also produced humorous brothel tokens made of clay. His work is very valuable in the collectibles market. Scroll up to the photo: http://books.google.com/books?id=8Q...kens&f=falseEdited by USVI Ingot
10/07/2009 9:10 pm
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Replies: 10 / Views: 5,964 |
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Posted 08/02/2009 3:26 pm
