{"id":641,"date":"2015-04-16T15:23:40","date_gmt":"2015-04-16T21:23:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iseeancestors.com\/comm\/?p=641"},"modified":"2015-04-17T08:17:09","modified_gmt":"2015-04-17T14:17:09","slug":"tokens-of-the-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iSeeAncestors.com\/comm\/2015\/04\/16\/tokens-of-the-past\/","title":{"rendered":"Tokens of the Past"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TradeAnother of my great-granduncles, Louis William Yuncker<\/a> (1877-1963), was my paternal great-grandmother\u2019s younger brother.\u00a0 He is mentioned in his mother\u2019s 1921 obituary as living in Saginaw, Michigan.\u00a0 A quick search online revealed unique items with a connection to the past.<\/p>\n

Two trade tokens bear the name L. W. Yuncker’s<\/strong>. <\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\u00a0 It turns out Louis William Yuncker owned a meat market in Saginaw.\u00a0 He undoubtedly used these very same tokens in the family business.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Trade<\/a>
Trade Tokens: L. W. Yuncker’s<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to TokenCatalog.com, these trade tokens were manufactured by Ingle and are listed in the Ingle customer ledger as order number 191, which was shipped to Saginaw, Michigan about 1910.\u00a0 Both are brass.\u00a0 The “1” denomination is 18mm in diameter while the “5” denomination is 20mm.<\/p>\n

On his marriage license Louis Yuncker listed his occupation as a meat cutter.\u00a0 He married Nellie M. DeLude April 16, 1901 in Saginaw, Michigan. <\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\u00a0 By 1907 Louis had opened his own store, L. W. Yuncker’s. <\/span>4<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\u00a0 In 1915 the store was at 656 Sheridan Avenue. <\/span>5<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\u00a0 By 1921 it had moved to 1239 S. Warren Avenue. <\/span>6<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\u00a0 And by 1942 it was at 1200 State Street. <\/span>7<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\u00a0 I’ve yet to find any later references to the store and when it may have closed.<\/p>\n

How these trade tokens were used is unknown. The denominations 1<\/strong> and 5<\/strong> could mean $1 and $5, but $5 in 1910 would be relatively valuable. They could mean 1 cent and 5 cents, but other tokens from that time often display a cent-sign and 1 cent in merchandise would be a small value. (A pound of bacon sold for 25 cents in 1910.) They might indicate 1 and 5 points used in a store credit scheme, or perhaps a contest or sales promotion. They also could have been used either with customers or with suppliers.<\/p>\n

These relatively obscure items make a tangible connection to the past.\u00a0 In this case they are the only items that remain of a once thriving family business.\u00a0 At least, that’s what I’ve discovered so far….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another of my great-granduncles, Louis William Yuncker (1877-1963), was my paternal great-grandmother\u2019s younger brother.\u00a0 He is mentioned in his mother\u2019s 1921 obituary as living in Saginaw, Michigan.\u00a0 A quick search online revealed unique items with a connection to the past. Two trade tokens bear the name L. W. Yuncker’s. \u00a0 It turns out Louis William … Continue reading “Tokens of the Past”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":309,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,21,83,96],"tags":[98,97],"class_list":["post-641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-and-times","category-michigan","category-paternal-ancestors","category-surname-yuncker","tag-trade-tokens","tag-yuncker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iSeeAncestors.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iSeeAncestors.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iSeeAncestors.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iSeeAncestors.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/309"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iSeeAncestors.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/iSeeAncestors.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":655,"href":"https:\/\/iSeeAncestors.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641\/revisions\/655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iSeeAncestors.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iSeeAncestors.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iSeeAncestors.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}