Tokens

 

For the purpose of this catalog we will call "farm tokens" (fichas de finca) any object that is supposed to have served as means of payment, unit to control work performed or in exchange for any item, product or service. Created or issued by any individual or legal entity on an individual basis, mainly farms and ranches, they aim at being easily distinguishable from other objects of the same species. We exclude from this concept any documents or titles issued in paper, registered or written to a bearer, such as bills, checks, vouchers, notes, stocks, bonds or similar. What we know as Guatemalan Farm tokens in other countries are called Token, Private Coins, "Boletos de Café", "Señas y Ñapas", "Riles de Finca", etc.

 

As mentioned in previous sections of this catalog, from the pre-Columbian times people used cacao, shells, feathers, furs and other species as an indigenous monetary standard , coexisting with the use of currencies, mainly in agricultural or suburban areas and among the indigenous population until the late nineteenth century. These objects used as currency pattern, for not having being distinguished as such by the issuer or user, are outside of this catalog but have been used for the same purpose as farm tokens.

 

As such we already mentioned the lack of circulating currency that the Guatemalan population went through during its history, especially in agricultural areas of the country, usually remote and poorly linked to the villages and towns of that time.

 

During the colonial period, mining was the main economic activity in the region. Agriculture was primarily destined to local consumption and did not require a great amount of currency for its production (based mainly on indigenous slavery) or to market the different products, that were mostly bartered due to the low money supply.

 

After the independence of Central America, the abolition of slavery and the fall in production and export of cochineal and indigo in the mid-nineteenth century, large estates and farms were founded, to cultivate coffee. Such farms required a great amount of labor, mainly indigenous. Due to the apathy, fear, narrow-mindedness of the Guatemalans of Spanish descent, who had lost money producing cochineal and had had their land sacked by the civil war, many of these farms were formed by German immigrants, Colombians, even Belgian and French who in their countries of origin had already heard of the new opportunities in growing coffee. The lack of workforce, communications, access to credit and coin supply were some of the difficulties encountered by the new landowners. Each and every one of these difficulties helped spread the use of farm tokens among the coffee industry.

Most tokens belong to Guatemalan coffee plantations and were created and used between 1850 and 1950, although its use continued in some regions until the late twentieth century. The token from Furrer Hastedt & Co. is the oldest know, dated 1854. Nickel was minted in denominations of ½, 1 and 2. The date on it, although reputed to be the year of minting, could also be the date of commencement of operations of the company or foundation, because in those years they were just beginning to develop coffee growing in the country.

 

There are Guatemalan farm tokens produced the traditional way, counter-marked or minted over other coins, and the formally minted coins, specially for a particular farm.

    

Among the rustic or traditional farm tokens, we find different shapes, sizes and materials. It is very difficult to determine their date of creation, unless otherwise indicated or inferred by the farm to which it belongs, if it occurs, and the date on which the farm operated.

    

Of the counter-marked tokens, or the ones minted on other coins, we mainly find the ones using the copper cents from Guatemala, dated 1871 y 1881, whether they were minted, trimmed or crushed. We also find in smaller amounts some token made with other Guatemalan coins or foreign coins. In these cases, the date of the coin used helps us to roughly guess the period in which it was used.  

 

In the case of formally coined tokens, it is easier to determine the creation date, if it is not indicated on it, by the period of time during which the minting houses and coining companies operated, if the token bears their mint mark. The Guatemalan Mint was authorized to mint individual tokens according to the regulations of 21 November 1.894, which limited the coinage of tokens from farm to copper material and 17, 22 or 26 millimeters in diameter. It made most of the farm minting. Also in this regulation, the use of the same size as the national currency was prohibited, which by then was 37, 31, 24, 18, for the silver coins, and 16 mm and 25 mm for a copper penny.   

  

 

  

 

Some tokens were minted abroad by houses such as: as A. Popert, Paris, L. H. Moise S. F. (A company that existed in San Francisco, CA, USA, from 1893 to 1897); C. A. Klinkner & Co. S. F. (Which also operated in San Francisco, CA, from 1889 to 1897), Moise-Klinkner Co. (a company created from the merger of the previous two in 1897 and operated until 1930, when it became Patrick & Co.).

 

The farm tokens were originally used as a means of control of work or as a substitute to circulating currency. They were given by the owner of the farm to the worker or the service or product provider. For example, the person delivering a load of firewood, a bushel of corn or a crate of coffee cut, was given a token, either indicating that product or service or its equivalent in real or pesos. In principle, the token would be exchanged periodically by the owner of the farm to the bearer for its equivalent in legal tender. As this is not always the case in reality, some traders began to accept them in their establishments as a means of payment, provided that the farm was known and solvent. Over time most of the farms established their own shops and there were exchanging their own coins for items of consumption required by the workers, the landowner getting the double benefit and somehow holding captive skilled labor that was so scarce in those days. That way, since the tokens were being accepted out of the estate, people started to counterfeit them, mostly the rustic handcrafted ones. What initially started as a system which made easier to both the employer and the worker, the exchange of goods or services, eventually became an instrument of exploitation, fraud and speculation, outside any government control. In 1925, the state banned its use as payment, or substitute for the legal currency, the Quetzal. Despite the prohibition, tokens continued to have a widespread use until the late twentieth century.

       

Some tokens have counter-marks on them. The reasons for those include: the change of ownership of the property, second minting by the same owner of the farm to prevent forgery or fraud or to update his inventory, clearance for use by a different farm, the change in value, or to disable it and put it out of circulation.

 

The classification of the different coins in this catalog is made in alphabetical order, giving preference to the name of the estate if known (omitting adjectives, such as the, the, san, farm, plantation, ranch, etc.).. If not known, the classification is made under the name of the issuer or name appearing on the token. In case we would not know any of the above, we would sort it by any first letter or number that shows on the token, except if the meaning of such initial is known, in which case we would sort it according the the principles above.

 

This catalog is in no way "the" catalog for farm tokens in Guatemala. It is far from it despite being the most comprehensive publicly known to date. Today some collectors speak of up to 4,000 different tokens, and we have here only about 1000. This is a work that aims at labeling the tokens that I have in my collection with pictures and illustrates the different pieces that I know, their size and materials used. I hope it will serve as a reference for future studies or for people who do not know those tokens existed, since there is very little literature on the matter, and I faced the lack of cooperation of my fellow citizens to share the tokens and their knowledge about them. Almost all of the bibliographic reference available today comes from catalogs and foreign publications. The idea is to keep improving and expanding as I get new tokens and information on them.

 

The collection of farm tokens listed here was started by my father, Jose Roberto Sandoval Campo, around 1970. From him I inherited about 250 different tokens and expanded to nearly 800. In early 2008, I sold the entire collection to the President of the Dominican Numismatic Society, José Manuel Henriquez, a good friend who is collecting farm tokens from Latin America. Before I gave them to José Manuel, I took pictures and measurements of the tokens that make up the collection. Today we maintain constant communication in order to strengthen and expand this catalog, which he himself has called "Our Collection".

 

I hope this brochure will be of some use wherever in the world you may find yourself.

For any suggestion or for further information, please let us know.
 Monedas de Guatemala
Victor Hugo Sandoval

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