A “Depotel” Token
Tokens are where you find them! I’m continuously surprised by finding previously unknown tokens thousands of miles from where they were issued. I was recently reminded of this when I spotted an unusual transportation token on everyone’s favorite Internet auction site. Listed by my longtime friend Dick Grinolds, it is the type of transportation token collectors refer to as a “depotel.”
Depotel tokens were, for the most part, issued by transportation companies located in small Midwestern towns. The primary source of business for these firms was transporting customers, who often were traveling salesmen, from the local train depot to the hotel and back. The term is a combination of the words “depot” and “hotel.”
Most depotel tokens were struck in small quantities,
and a large percentage of them are rare.
The cost of a one-way fare was typically 15 cents, but for a quarter, paid in advance, a customer could ride to the hotel and receive a token good for the return trip. The obverse inscription included the company’s name and usually its location. The obverse, or sometimes the reverse, usually stated “good for return trip,” “good for one ride between depot and hotel,” “round trip 25¢,” or something of the sort. Some do not indicate their value. Most depotel tokens were struck in small quantities, and many of them are rare.
A Fascinating Purchase
In 1989 my wife Joanne and I were driving to a coin show in Chicago. On the way, we stopped to see a man who had operated a coin shop in a small town on the Ohio River for many years. I had visited him several times before he closed his business and was always able to purchase some interesting tokens and medals. I had been looking forward to this trip. On previous visits, he had told me about the boxes of tokens at his house that he had purchased over the years and had decided to keep for one reason or another. I had kept in touch with him after he retired. Shortly before our trip, he had called and invited us to stop by his house.
I was not disappointed. While Joanne and his wife had a nice visit on their porch, which overlooked the river, we spent a few hours inside going through the boxes. There was seemingly no end to the neat items, which included Civil War tokens, rare West Virginia and Ohio saloon tokens, early merchant tokens, and medals of all sorts. My offer for the boxes was accepted. Needless to say, I had a big smile on my face when we left his house and headed for Chicago.
One of the most interesting items was a 29mm aluminum depotel token which, as I soon learned, was not listed in The Atwood-Coffee Catalogue of United States and Canadian Transportation Tokens. Its obverse legend, YOUNG’S/BUS/CHECK/FARGO, N.D., is the type of inscription you’d expect to see on a token of this type. I was especially intrigued by the reverse, which states GREAT NORTHERN AND MILWAUKEE DEPOT/NOT RESPONSIBLE/FOR/GRIPS/AND/TELESCOPES. I had never seen the word “telescopes” on another depotel token. I can’t imagine that so many people traveling to Fargo would have such a device with them that the disclaimer would need to be included in the token’s inscription.
(Photo: David Schenkman)
The piece is listed as ND 260-K in the current edition of the Atwood-Coffee catalog. Since my discovery in 1989, a couple more examples have been found; uniqueness is often a temporary characteristic with tokens of this sort. It had been many years since I sold my token, and I was reminded of it when I saw Dick’s listing. I decided to see what I could learn about Mr. Young and his business.
Transportation Business
As it turned out, I couldn’t find much about the personal life of the man, Thomas J. Young, other than the fact that he was born on June 2, 1850. The earliest mention of a related business with his surname was in an advertisement in the November 25, 1903, issue of The Fargo Forum and Daily Republican, where Jeff Young & Co. offered “hacks or coupes day or night” and “baggage delivered at all hours.” His phone number, 15, is meaningful. Sixteen months later, an ad placed by T.J. Young & Co. for his
storage and transfer business “in connection with bus and baggage line” gave the same number. I have to wonder if “Jeff” was Thomas’s middle name.
(Photo: The Fargo Forum and Daily Republican)
Mentions of tokens (or “checks,” as they were commonly called) are rarely found in newspaper articles. However, the November 26, 1906, Fargo newspaper published a short notice. It read, “T.J. Young & Co.’s bus and transfer line will give you claim check for your trunk so you will have no trouble at depot. Phone 15.” Young evidently retired not long thereafter. A notice on July 29, 1908, stated that “T.J. Young & Sons, the bus and transfer men, successors to T.J. Young & Co., will call at your residence or hotels and give you claim checks good for checking your baggage at all depots. Phone 15.”
The token illustrated herein is almost certainly the “check” referred to in the articles cited above. This tells us it must have been issued by T.J. Young and continued to be used by his sons. Thomas died on August 28, 1913. The last newspaper mention I found of the business was in 1918. This seems strange, since it was described in a 1917 article as being “the largest transfer company in Fargo.” One of the company’s two new “White Depot Busses” that it had just received appears in the December 1917 paper.
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A version of this article appears in the April 2024 issue of The Numismatist (money.org)