Need help identifying token

[RayB Fort Worth]

Found this token here in Fort Worth TX and figure it's a carnival token or something like that. The thing appears to be made of aluminum or some type of light metal. The name on the token is "Joe Caldwell." I have seen one of these type tokens before but didn't know where they came from.

 

[coinnut]

Hi, I think they come out of a machine and were very popular in amusement parks, fairs, etc... I have a couple dozen of them. You would pay to have one made in a machine, and I think you would print them yourself. I have found many with gibberish written on them instead of someone's name. I think the machine gets out of alignment and prints something different than what you asked for. I've never seen the machine, but i think it would be similar to the old label makers. I don't remember them in the 1960's, so I figure they are older than that. Estimate around the 1940's - 1950's. Kinda when cops and robbers was popular. With one you could be a Sheriff. They clean up nice with dish soap and water and #0000 steel wool. Nice finds. I'm not sure if they are really classified as tokens, but they may be. HH

 

[RayB Fort Worth]

n/t

 

[Rick(ND)]

What these are is ID tags that a person stamps out them self's. I remember these machine in bus depot and rail stations in the 60s and even early 70s.The machine was about 4 and a half feet tall and had a handle on each side of the machine plus a big dial that pointed to different letters and symbols. Now I remember the price then as it was 10 cents as I made up several myself as when you took a girl out we would make one up with both of our names if there was enough room on it. Now we drop the dime in and turn the dial to the letter you wanted and pulled the left Handel and it would stamp that letter for you. Now you set for the next letter and do the same until it was done then you pulled the right Handel and the tag would come out. One of the problems we had was sometimes the dial wasn't locked in place so the letter would be only half way or go to the next letter so you had to make the dial was in the right place before you pulled the Handel to stamp it.
Brings back some good memories when I see one of these tags and some even had their towns they lived in so you could return some of them if the person is still around.

Rick

 

[Mike Moutray - St.Louis MO]

They are officially known as Punch Tags. They have a collector following, I have several different ones from over the years of detecting. The punch tag and machine was patented in the late 1890's, if I remember correctly, and they are still in existance today in some out of the out-of-the-way tourist spots. We had one in the St. Louis airport terminal up until a couple years ago, and I've seen a couple in my travels out west... in Wall Drug Store in SD, and some gift shop in Hollywood CA. If you're lucky, you can find one with a name, address and town to try and track down the owner... I have a couple like that, but they were old and the owners that made them had passed away by the time I found them. Nice find! HH, Mike.