USA 1930's - Ceylon MN
Gus & Squiz

2 Five Cents, a Ten cents and a One Dollar Merchant Trade tokens from Ceylon Hotel in Martin County, Minnesota. Gus & Squiz were the nicknames of the owners operating the Ceylon Hotel from 1937 to 1941.

SPECIFICATIONS
Value5 cents
AlloyBrass
Diameter21.2 mm
Thickness1.7 mm
Weight4.49 gms
ShapeRound
EdgePlain
DieAxis0°
 gus_squiz_ceylon_mn_5c_obverse gus_squiz_ceylon_mn_5c_reverse
Token Catalog #438545
Value5 cents
AlloyBrass
Diameter21.2 mm
Thickness1.7 mm
Weight4.49 gms
ShapeRound
EdgePlain
DieAxis0°
 gus&squiz_ceylon_mn_5c_obverse gus&squiz_ceylon_mn_5c_reverse
Token Catalog #171711
Value10 cents
AlloyBrass
Diameter25.4 mm
Thickness1.? mm
Weight5.?? gms
ShapeRound
EdgePlain
DieAxis0°
 gus&squiz_ceylon_mn_10c_obverse gus&squiz_ceylon_mn_10c_reverse
Token Catalog #171712
Value$ 1.00
AlloyBrass
Diameter30.7 mm
Thickness1.3 mm
Weight7.36 gms
ShapeRound
EdgePlain
DieAxis165°
 gus&squiz_ceylon_mn_1$_obverse gus&squiz_ceylon_mn_1$_reverse
Token Catalog #171713

Obverse : Name GUS & SQUIZ above and state MINN. below along periphery, and town CEYLON as downward arc with bow-tie(above) at center.
Instead of BowTie the top 5¢ has Two Diamonds( ♦ ) above & below.
Reverse : Large Numeric Value 5¢, 10¢ or $1.00 at center with the legend GOOD FOR on top and IN TRADE below at bottom along the periphery, all within plain rim.
Both 5¢ tokens has two six petal flowers (✽) on either side breaking the legend.
The 10¢ and $1.00 has a dot circle inside rim on both obverse and reverse.

The Ceylon Hotel opened for Bussiness in 1937 under August (Gus) Saggau and Anna (Squiz) Gillin who married on 1938 January 27th and owned the Hotel until 1941 May when they moved to California (CCT P-26) Harry Broudt purchased the Ceylon Hotel in 1948

I thank Gerald Rosenberg who obtained the $1.00 token for me in 2003 February.
Not sure if the value indicates this is a more recent token particularly since the font is different. (Note the &)
I am told by Forrest Stevens that he has seen many examples of sets of tokens from the same store to give change in varying denominations, from as low as 1/2 cent to as high as $5, which were made in the same style and appeared to be the same age.

I thank Gerald Rosenberg and Marlen Bents of Ceylon MN for the history.

This top 5c token with diamonds was won in the 2003 January on ebay from a seller from MN, USA. This Lakdiva collection Token is on Loan to the Ceylon Area Historical Society and have been on display at their Museum in Ceylon Mn subsequent to my visit in 2005 September.

The tokens are imaged at about 250 dpi and displayed at 250 dpi.
The 5c and 10c with bow-tie photoshoped from 400 dpi photographs posted in tokencatalog.com to which the $1.00 image was contributed.

See also the Ceylon MN token site for more stories.