Pictures Of Schultz Store

Merchant Trade Tokens

Large heavy brass trade token, 35 mm diameter.  Token reads:
"Mrs. E. Schultz & Son, New Baden, Texas, Good For $1.00 In Merchandise"

General Store Tokens

The most often encountered trade token is the general store, or general merchant token. Most small towns in America, from Oklahoma to South Dakota, had a general store in the 1880’s and 1890’s. The pioneer merchants included bakers, dry goods merchants, grocers, and general stores. These were a thrifty people, and they discovered that the use of "trade tokens" gave them a slight advantage over a competitor who did not use the chips. Various methods were used to entice business. One was to hand out small denomination tokens to the children, who would undoubtedly bring their parents to the store when the child wanted to purchase a penny’s worth of candy. Another very common practice was for the merchant to buy eggs, poultry, garden and farm produce from the local inhabitants, and pay 10 percent more in tokens, than he would in cash. This ensured that the seller would return to his store to buy needed items, and conserved the merchant’s cash. Other merchants used the tokens as a bookkeeping device, advancing the customer a fixed sum in tokens, to be repaid when the customer sold his cotton, or cattle. General store merchant trade tokens are often found in denominations of 1¢, 5¢, 10¢, 25¢, 50¢, and $1.00. Rarely are they found with higher denominations. (source: http://members.home.net/tokenguy/page10.htm)

Bank token reads:
"Paul Schultz Bank, New Baden, Texas, Good For 10 In Merchandise"

In the late 1800’s, many merchants were first or second generation Americans and their ties to their original homelands was strong, as shown by the names of the towns they settled. In Texas, we have New Baden, Manheim, Schulenburg, Walburg, Weimer, New Braunfels, and Nordheim. Many times, the merchant name on a token also speaks of his/her homeland. Some of the merchant names seen on Texas tokens include Hruska, Oltjen, Schmidt, Vogel, Hempel, Boettcher, Drodz, Umland, and Escajeda. (source: http://members.home.net/tokenguy/page10.htm)