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In smaller letters around the token are some names,maybe the drivers?
Might have to work on the names some time.
Guy who tried to sell me tokens at MARTA Station. I don't think that elevator works (it is MARTA) so I think he's standing there to avoid the wind. He took off his hat when he noticed I was taking a picture.
These are believed to be 17th or 18th century lead advertising tokens. No doubt they would have circulated as local currency, probably valued at a penny. The I should most likely be read as a J, possibly standing for John Wilkinson (of cast-iron manufacture fame) or similar. The reverse carries a symbol akin to a formalised fleur-de-lis or a pair of scales. Three identical specimens were found close together alongside an old trade route in the Lune Valley here in Cumbria. One was gifted to Lancaster Museum.
Of interest is an observation I made whilst on a CVBG study day at Swarthmoor Hall, Ulverston, Cumbria. The house was the base of Fox, the founder of the Quaker movement, and the house played host to him. Within the house are many fine pieces of period furniture, one of which is a domed chest with the initials GF and dated 1675, on the front of which are two feur-de-lis, all done with metal studs and looking very much like the symbols used here, but with no animals. Check out my album on Swarthmoor Hall for comparison.
Very similar formalised fleur-de-lis appears in the range of 'stock designs' catalogued by Mitchiner Vol. 3 page 1816 and dated c.1674-1790.
Ten hazard tokens on my car at the moment I ram another. Guaranteeing I'll wipe out and wreck (and likely explode).
The Guangzhou metro sytem used plastic tokens valued between 2 and 5 yuan. I'm not really sure how the machines could tell the difference, as they all looked and weighed the same, but they could.
While cleaning out an old desk, I ran across these old DQ Tokens. These were long before they had that tear-off strip on the bag. When I was in school, teachers used to give these out, for things like good grades, perfect attendance, & good behavior. Another throw-back of my youth.
On the far side of the ridge across the valley behind this grand gesture is a humbler sign, also mentioning the Golden Sun Moth. Placed here as it is, its back facing the major trackway and its front facing the suburbs this really looks like a branding exercise more than a commitment to the poor little endangered moth.
In the fine print this sign talks about an offset for the suburb of Ngunnawal. Elsewhere on websites, this same area is referred to as an offset for the suburb of Bonner. Neither claim really compensates for the destruction of moth communities when those suburbs were built. They haven't made more moths, just destroyed those that were there!
The topic of Ngunnawal is an intriguing one. There are contested spellings: Ngunnawal and Ngunawal. It's a bit silly really. This was the language group of the inhabitants of this land when Europeans arrived. As a spoken language without a script and no longer a living language how it is transliterated in the Latin alphabet is arbitrary.
When the Government of the ACT declared allegiance to one language group over another, one elder adroitly shifted themselves to the preferred group. This is an emerging issue with unwritten matters. As the new Government moves to mend fences with the peoples indigenous to Australia at the time of European settlement it faces the issue of affiliations and disagreements within the communities they seek to address. We hope for a resolution without bickering and posturing over superiority of one claim over another between families and so on. This matter has been a long time coming, 234 years so far, and it would be a shame if it ended as a grand gesture, like this sign, with just a bit of branding and fine print without substance.
Please be aware... Photos are just a hobby. I am no coin expert. Titles are from my recognition - what I was told - or a quick search. No claim of 100% accuracy, I do try to be as factual as possible. Most items have little to no value. Coins are photographed as received. I don't clean coins, but prior to coming my way I'd imagine some have been.
Please be aware... I am no coin expert. Posted titles are either what I was told or from a quick Google search. No claim is made of all being accurate, I do make an effort to be as factual as possible when posting. Some duplication of type or variety may occur. I try not to double post items. My feeble brain may slip on that from time to time. Very little actual value exists in most (if not all) of them.