Pair Of Identical Tokens

Earlier this week I hunted my last farm field/former home site permission that hasn’t been planted yet (and judging by the weeds, it won’t get planted this year - it’s slated to become a housing development “soon”). I’ve hunted it several times already, and the good finds have slowed to a trickle, but it’s literally in my backyard so it’s great for those “time’s short, I need a quick hit” kind of hunts

I started the hunt with a few hits on some unidentifiable brass bits, but then got over a small buckle for the first keeper. A couple of Montgomery Ward “Redhead” shotshell headstamps and the shaft of an eating utensil came next.

I was just about to call it quits and head in for dinner when I got over a deeper signal, with a jumpy VDI. It sounded like a potential Indian, although the VDI was averaging a number or two too low (mostly 18-19 showing on the EQ800). Digging down about 7-8”, I was pleased to pop out a big coin shaped disk! I couldn’t make out any detail through the dirt, but it was definitely too thin for a US Large Cent, and it didn’t ring up right for that anyway...maybe a Canadian Largie?? I had found one of those before, but couldn’t remember what the VDI was. The mystery would have to wait until clean up...savoring the suspense, I popped it into my pouch.

But dinner would have to wait too...buoyed by a potentially nice find, I sniffed around the vicinity a little longer. About 10 feet away, I got over another deeper, jumpy signal, but this one was a higher tone - centered more in the low to mid 20s on the EQ800. From about 7” down, I was ecstatic to bring up another big, greenish disc...but this one I could see right away had some lettering, an old “Good For” token! On a hunch, I took the mystery disc out of my pouch and compared them - yep, exact same size and thickness!

Clean up at home turned out to be very difficult and time consuming. Despite the sandy soil, it turned out both tokens suffered quite a bit of corrosion. The first one I knew was going to be rough because it showed no detail at all out of the hole and the crust was like concrete. The second one I honestly thought was going to be relatively easy, but one side ended up having a huge splotch of bronze disease that can’t be completely removed. Patient work eventually confirmed they are both, indeed, two examples of the same token though. With the help of tokencatalog,com, the name on the obverse can be identified as “H. R. Hopkins”. It’s partially visible on one, but apparently the name is completely obliterated by the bronze disease bubbling up on the other.

Despite their rough shape, I’m thrilled with the pair! I love the large size, which is somewhat unusual for a relatively small denomination token. The all incuse lettering just oozes age and the tokens themselves are dripping with history!