2 KETCHUM, SUN VALLEY IDAHO 1963 WAGON DAYS TOKENS & THEIR HISTORY.

Description

Auction is for the two brass or brass coated promotional tokens from1963 Ketchum/Sun Valley Idaho, shown in the photos.  They are uncirculated & date to 1963.    Per photos, there are some light surface scratches on each.   Each token weighs about 1/2 oz. & they are 1 1/2" in diameter.
One side of token has a wagon wheel, miner’s pick, & gold pan, & is inscribed
IDAHO TERRITORIAL CENTINNIAL 1863 1963.
The opposite side is inscribed WAGON DAYS SOUVENIR, AUG 23 24 25 1963 ANNUAL KETCHUM IDAHO.
It also has an engraving of the Big Hitch Ore Wagon-train & mules.    Those wagons are preserved intact from the 1880’s, in the Ketchum/Sun Valley Museum.   The wagons look similar to the 1950’s TV Death Valley Days Borax Wagons, except this one hauled ore over a high mountain pass to an 1880’s smelter in Ketchum.   Miraculously, this wagon-train is still in good enough condition to be trundled through the streets of Ketchum every summer in the still on-going Wagon Days event.
The last photo show those wagons outside Ketchum's Ore Wagon Museum in August 2019.   (I'll be happy to email a jpeg of that photo to the auction winner, at their request.   My email will be on your packing list.)
“The Story.”
I grew up in Ketchum, and my father was one of the active members of the Volunteer Fire Department.   For several years in the early 1960’s they sold similar tokens during the annual
WAGON DAYS EVENT
to raise money for the  Fire Department.  The earlier tokens were inscribed that they were worth .00 in any Ketchum or Sun Valley business during Wagon Days.
The U.S. Treasury Department was bothered by this blatant attempt to ruin the U.S. monetary system.  Agents warned the Ketchum Fire Department that any further coins inscribed with monetary amounts would be confiscated, and those responsible would be prosecuted.
The 1963 Territorial Centennial was a big event in Idaho.  The Ketchum Fire Department decided to sell Wagon Days coins anyway, without any monetary value on them, but local merchants would still honor them at .00 each.  I don’t know how successful the promotion was, but my father ended up a leftover uncirculated batch.   A little bit of Ketchum/Sun Valley history for you.
From a Non-smoking household.
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