M.A.M.Co
Automatic Machine Token

A brass Automatic Machine token, which I obtained from a dealer in Lanka.

SPECIFICATIONS
DenominationUnknown
AlloyBrass
Diameter21.2 mm
Thickness1.8 mm
Weight4.54 gms
ShapeRound
EdgePlain
DieAxis
Mintage10,000
MintBirmingham
mamco_obverse mamco_reverse

Obverse : M.A.M.Co within a dash circle inside raised rim.
Reverse : same as obverse.

According to Mr Paul Baker this token is listed as Hayes-249 in book "British Machine Tokens" by Ralph Hayes, 1986. The book includes an image but does not give any info of issuer.

The weight is exactly 100 to the pound weight. The 21.2mm size of a U.S. 5 Cent coin is a popular size for this sort of tokon, which is probably from the 1920-1950 era.

According to site The order books of 'The Mint Birmingham Ltd' for 1925-28 show many amusement machine tokens were made, including one order of 10,000 of these M.A.M. Co. tokens; Hayes 249. From information supplied by R.N.P. Hawkins to Ralph Hayes for his book British Machine Tokens, Supplement No.5 Apr 1988.

The Samson Novelty Company were the British agents for the Mills Novelty Company, leading to the possibility they had these tokens struck for use in imported machines from their subsidiary Mills Automatic Merchandising Corporation of New York.

It was listed within lot 298 of the 1995 Baldwin Auction of Dick Ford Collection, with the comment "Some perhaps of Ceylon" This has caused it to be wrongly identified as a Ceylon Coffee Token. It is not a coffee token, does not look like one, and is not Listed in Pridmore's catalog.

Reference
The Dick Ford collection, Taisei-Baldwin-Gillio Auction Catalogue #19 1995 February 23. Singapore Auction

The VF grade token was scanned at 600 dpi and the images are displayed at 300 dpi. It was purchased in 2009 August from a dealer in Lanka.