Arizona tax token orientation

[eagames]

I was metal detecting in the desert enjoying the cooler days and found enough nails to build a house and no coins but then in one hole I found an Arizona tax token then still had a hit in the same hole and found another of the same token.

After getting the dirt off I can see they are both the same Arizona tax tokens (smaller than dimes). I don't know much about them other than they are 1 mil tokens. (1/1000th of a dollar) I'm not sure what years they were used.

One of them has medalic orientation, the other is 90 degrees out of rotation.

Does anyone know if they were randomly oriented or is this an error?

[coppercoins]

I know very little about them, but I did have a friend once who was one of the world's leading experts on the subject. He was going to write a book on them that evidently never materialized.

Anyhow, an expensive tax token is a $20 item and is scarce to rare and in excellent condition.

Most tax tokens that show any use are a quarter each and a dime a dozen...pretty common, most of them.

I believe I remember a total of either 12 or 14 states used state tax tokens, and none of the state issues are all that rare.

Illinois (the only one I know of for sure) issued 'provincial' tokens that had town names and/or county names on them. Those are sometimes unique to fewer than a dozen known, and since they had specific places on them they can reap good money - sometimes up to a hundred bucks each.

BTW, the friend whom I am speaking of I have not had contact with in about two or three years now, but he was the original owner of the name 'coppercoins.com' and his name is Bob Frye. He and I started this site together, but because he was very busy with a family and college during the years I was building this into a cent site, he lost interest and ended up turning the name over to me solely and stepping out of the picture.

[Dick]

Ed, diuring WWII, they used tax tokens. I don't recall having used them, because I didn't do any buying. There were also some "tokens" of some sort, that one had to have to buy meat, sugar, and Other things. Again, I recall very little, for the same reason. That, and thr fact I went into the Navy in '43, so I didn't have mmuch exposure.As far as orientation, I couldn't say. Most likely ramndom, because it is cheaper that way. You know how "CHEAP" Arizona is! They didn't give the WW I veterans a bonus, and WWII even less hope. Of course there are a few good things about the state, like the "right-to-work" law. The "open range law, where you can pack a side-arm, or a long barrel gun in the middle of town. They prefer it be un-loaded, tho. Forth-of-July, in Prescott, you will see more six-shooters than anything else.
Chuck, that name is very familiar to me. I don't know from where, but I sure remember someone by that name. I doubt that I might have known him, tho. Probably co=-incidence.
Dick

[eagames]

Added pics:

Trying to show how one is medalic orientation but the other is way out.

The emblem is hard to see but it's mountains with a sunset and a cow and a gold miner. (might be Dick in Skull Valley)

I guess they were trying to show it's a pretty place with gold and farms.

[GarryN]

Those are interesting tokens, EA. there is a website, www.exonumia.com that has mail bid sales infrequently. The site is a little hard to figure out, but if you get to some of the prior sales there still may be photos of some of the items sold.

[Dick]

Ed, I don't remember seeing the tokens, but the theme there is not one to include a cow. More like a coyote, or a dog. I don't see a burro, either. Can't include 'em all, I guess!
Dick

[coop]

Here is one on ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ARIZONA-STATE-TAX-COMMISSION-TOKEN-4658C_W0QQitemZ290261871376QQcmdZViewItem
A better one somewhere else. Price seems better as well. You can see the design on it better.
http://www.ioffer.com/i/55873106

[Dick]

Coop, thanks for posting that link. That IS a cow! Now that I can see what is there.
Dick

[eagames]

Good pics.

I'm sure they're common.

Still I'm not sure if the one with a rotated reverse is common or not. LOL... Guess I'll need to look at some at shows.

[Dick]

Ed, I would think the State Tax Commisioner's office would be able to say, omne way, or another. That's where they came from.
Dick

[cladking]

There are at least three varieties of the one with "medallic orientation". I believe yours is the second more common of these.

There are at least two orientations and yours makes a third I haven't seen before.

There are lots of things going on with tokens that can make such a thing as this uninteresting to most collectors. As you probably know tokens tend to be ordered in batches of 1000. For something with widespread usage like sale tax coins they might be ordered in many multiples of this. A die is made and the required number of tokens struck. It is most unusual that multiple dies would ever be needed unless the die broke but these dies would be "identical" if they used more than one.

There are lots of varieties usually because of reorders. A company orders a thousand transportation tokens and as these wear out and dwindle in number or the company adds more lines they order more tokens. Since the first die was destroyed they'll have to cut a new die and this one will have numerous differences to the original.

But tokens are not made with the same attention to detail that most coins are. Where rotated reverses are usually uncommon on coins they can be typical on some tokens. Dies have a tendency to rotate into a stable position determined by the design but the designs of tokens tend to be even and shallow so any movement of the press might just cause the die to continually rotate.

It's probable that on one order for the sales tax coins that the die did rotate creating yours and the example I have.

This particular coin is actually a somewhat more unusual issue and finding enough examples to prove the above speculation would take some time. Though from your picture it does appear to be the same die as mine.

[eagames]

Cladking,

Thanks for the info!

A while back I saw a local dealer that had what looks like an original shotgun roll of these in brown paper and the end coins were still fresh.
Next time I'm nearby I'll see if he has it and out of curiosity ask what he thinks it's worth.

[cladking]

[eagames]

Picked up 2 more Az tax tokens.

The first one is like the ones above but it's zinc.

The other one is a bigger 5 mil token, it's almost the size of a quarter and copper. (that's a lot of copper for 5/1000 of a dollar) Never seen the 5 mil before!

[coop]

Dick: On the WWII tokens, I believe they were paper. They were ones you could tear out and use along with money to purchase certain items during that period of limited resources. I remember an Aunt who gave me as a kid these pages to play with. the were manila colored with tear out edges and you were limited to so many of each item that you could buy. Gas, some foods and other items were included.