Hi All:

It is my opinion that you all might be going down the wrong path here. A 
2-1/2 cent token makes much more sense in a saloon than in a brothel or a 
bordello. Beer was traditionally five cents, as was a cigar, whereas a trick 
was usually four bits up to a dollar depending on the class of the place 
(much more, of course for the high spenders). A 2-1/2 cent token would get a 
man in the door of a saloon on the promise of half a beer or half a cigar, 
but a twentieth of a trick? Hmmmm......  Well, I suppose you could save them 
up......

I've worked with both brothel and saloon collections (see my article in the 
2005 January issue of HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY) and I've seen lots of 5-cent 
and 25-cent tokens in saloon collections in the 20th century; the brothel 
collections tend to have higher value tokens, 25 cents, 50 cents, even a 
dollar.

The Sandpoint Collection would indeed be a good comparative collection, but 
my guess is that the 2-1/2 cent tokens would have been issued by the 
saloons, not the brothels.

For what it is worth .....



 
Catherine Holder Spude, PhD
7 Avenida Vista Grande #145
Santa Fe, NM 87508
505-466-1476 home
505-913-1326 cell

"Life is not tried, it is merely survived if you are standing outside the 
fire," Jenny Yates and Garth Brooks.