The E-Sylum:  Volume 5, Number 29, July 14, 2002, Article 15

BINGLES REVISITED

  Hal V. Dunn writes: "I had never heard of Rev. Bingle until
  receiving the most recent issue of The E-Sylum.  I have
  always assumed that the word "bingle" simply referred to
  tokens and was not the surname of a real person.

  In Ronald J. Benice's Alaska Tokens, there are three
  bi-metal pieces listed as Chatanika 1.A, B, C, issued by
  Bingle Fritz.   He is identified as Thomas Frederick (Fritz)
  Welch, operating there between 1914 and 1923.

  In the Winter 1966 issue of Nevada Highways and Parks,
  there appears an article entitled "Bingles, Slugs & Tokens,"
  by Samuel Clover, describing Nevada merchant tokens and
  the collection of Jack Barry, the dean of Nevada token
  collectors.  To quote from the article:

 "What are they?  They're substitutes for money -- tokens we
  call them now -- issued by businessmen and merchants when
  minted coins are in short supply.  The Civil War years and
  the depression of the 1930s prompted a large issue of
  tokens in years past.  Today, when silver dollars have
  virtually disappeared from circulation, tokens -- or bingles,
  if you date from before the depression, or slugs, if you are
  older than that -- are back again in a big way."

  I first met the late Jack Barry in the early 1960s shortly after
  I "discovered" Nevada trade tokens.  Over the years I made
  many visits to his law office in Reno.  We spent many hours
  looking at tokens, discussing them and making frequent trades.
  I also had the opportunity to see some wonderful Nevada
  currency, assay bars, CC coins, and other rare Nevada
  material not frequently encountered.

  Jack never mentioned the source of the word "bingle" and I do
  not recall him ever associating it with a minister.  He was
  cataloging all Nevada exonumia and numismatic material for a
  future book, which unfortunately was never published.  He
  had a wealth of knowledge that has been lost forever to the
  collecting community.

  So, does anyone have a well documented story of the source
  of the word "bingle" and its connection to the Rev. Bingle?"

  [So far, I've seen nothing to confirm a connection to Rev.
  Bingle.  Readers?  -Editor]

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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