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Military button, Brass reel, and Silver

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  • Military button, Brass reel, and Silver

    I have been lucky with the non ferrous metals of late. A good variety of historic items have flipped out of the dirt for me to pick up, drag home, and clean up... (much to my wife's dismay).
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    The button is an old one, made by the A.M. Button Co. The fishing reel is all brass with no manufacture marks and the stamp box was just too cool to leave out there. I have no clue how a Missouri tax token found its way to a ditch in Ohio but it gave me a new area to research. Did not know tax tokens were a thing.
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    The spoon is sterling silver with some engraving. The kid's birthday was Oct. 03 and had the initials CVE. I was using a honeysuckle stick for a detector and I guess it was tuned in pretty well. Thanks for looking, fldwlkr
    Headwaters of the Little Miami, Ohio

  • #2
    nice finds, sure beats two 22 rifle projectiles.
    South East Ga. Twin City

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    • #3
      I like finds like those !
      Lubbock County Tx

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      • #4
        I love the stamp box.

        The sterling silver spoon is by the Alvin Manufacturing Company. It’s their ‘Virginia’ pattern, introduced in 1900.

        Tax tokens are very much a thing.

        When general sales taxes were introduced in the US from 1930 onwards (starting with Kentucky and Mississippi) there was no easy way for a retailer to levy the tax on small purchases. For example, you might buy something with a retail price of 10 cents on which the sales tax would be a fraction of a cent and had no way to pay it. The retailer would nevertheless still be liable to pay the tax to the government based on the total of his sales. If he sold a lot of small items, he effectively lost money on each of those small sales and it could soon mount up.

        These tokens were the solution. They came in various values and yours is valued at “1 mill” (a thousandth of a dollar, or a tenth of a cent). So if, for example, you made a 10 cent purchase liable for sales tax in fractions of a cent, the retailer would ‘overcharge’ you at 11 cents and then refund the ‘overpayment’ in fractional cents with these tokens. He then wasn’t losing out on what he had to pay the government.

        Not every state had (or needed) these tokens. About a dozen states issued them. In most states they were discontinued during WWII as a result of the additional complications of ration tokens and stamps.

        I keep six honest serving-men (they taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who.

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        • fldwlkr
          fldwlkr commented
          Editing a comment
          Thank you for the information, painshill. I enjoy researching items as much as finding them. Recently, I have been learning about flatware and silver marks, button manufacturers, and depression era tax and trade tokens. The brass stamp box has a crack in the lid but is otherwise intact. I could send it your way if you like it that much. A buddy who collects fishing gear has already called "dibs" on the reel.

      • #5
        Nice finds....fishing reel is wild!
        SW Connecticut

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        • #6
          If I actually survive until I can get back down into the states Tim I have got to take you detecting, with an actual working detector. Once again Roger is spot on with his assessment of your finds. One thing he missed though is the button. If I am not mistaken it is a WWI era military button.
          Bruce
          In life there are losers and finders. Which one are you?

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          • fldwlkr
            fldwlkr commented
            Editing a comment
            Bruce! Hope all is well up North. I agree with everything painshill had to say about the metal. If my notes are correct, A.M. Button Co. was stamping them out from 1902 to 1917, so WW I would be correct. The button might be an example of deposition lag. The site I gleaned it from is an old dump and things are pretty stirred up and jumbled.

          • 2ndoldman
            2ndoldman commented
            Editing a comment
            All is well enough for an old retrobate like. Tim. Thank you for asking.
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