Staff
A letter to the editor that appeared in the February 10 edition of the Rimbey Review has resulted in a bit of connection between the Rimbey Co-op and a seven year-old boy halfway around the world living in the city of Carrigaline, Ireland.
In the letter, long-time coin collector Darryl Atchison inquired to the public about the availability of a special wooden token in the form of a coin that was issued in the 1980’s by the Rimbey Co-op to pass along to his son James who, like his father, has taken a serious interest in collecting.
It’s hard to imagine how such a connection could be made from so far away but there’s a bit more to the story than that. As an accomplished researcher and editor, the elder Atchison knew the wooden tokens had been distributed across Canada to commemorate a wide variety of places and events. It also helped immensely that he was born and raised in Chatham, Ontario.
“I started collecting myself when I was about eight years-old, so that’s nearly 40 years ago. I’m involved with a number of different coin clubs and organizations at the moment and actually, I am the president of the Canadian Numismatic Research Society,” Atchison said in a recent telephone interview from his home.
“I’ve been a member of local, regional and national clubs. Last year I edited probably the single-most important reference produced on Canadian numismatics. That book is a two-volume, 1,200 page publication that lists approximately 20,000 published books and articles on Canadian coins and paper money and covers the past 400 years,” he added.
Atchison said he married an Irish girl and has been living in Ireland for the past 13 years. As a result of his love for the hobby, his son James also became interested in the hobby and dad suggested he might want to consider collecting commemorative wooden tokens.
Following the publishing of the book, Atchison received a Fellowship in the society and was elected as its president last year.
“Through the book, I suppose James got interested in collecting,” he said. “James saw the book as it was coming out, saw the coins I was collecting, wanted something inexpensive to collect, and I suggested wooden tokens. I knew lots of collectors across Canada and had heard of wooden tokens before and even had a few. I contacted a friend who produces and writes a catalogue on them.”
To date, the father and son have managed to collect approximately 2,000 of the 8,000 wooden tokens listed in the publication and are always on the lookout for more.
For the most part, Atchison said the coins are relatively inexpensive and as such, was an ideal starting point for a young collector.
While he said the vast majority of James’ collection was given to him for free, most of the tokens range in price from .50 cents to one dollar for commons and from five to ten dollars for more-scarce varieties.
The most expensive token currently in their collection was produced for the 1880 Montreal Exhibition where only 30 were produced. According to price guides, the token is worth between $150 and $200.
“Because I know so many collectors, we said if James wants to collect them I’d contact the collectors and they all sent him 30 or 40 different pieces each that they had accumulated over the years so we got about 1,000 pieces for nothing,” Atchison said. “We have the listing and a pretty good selection from across the country, so we decided to go to areas we didn’t know people, so that’s when we decided to write to your newspaper.”
From there, Rimbey Co-op General Manager Caralee Strome said she saw the letter in the paper, knew there were still tokens in the area, and the wheels were put in motion.
“I saw the letter in the paper and I thought ‘oh wow’, someone is actually interested in these tokens and I had seen them around before,” she said. “I bumped into Jim Jaffray in the store and asked him if he had one of those tokens and would be willing to help out a bit. A few days later he returned and brought one in with him.”
After doing a bit of research, Strome said she believes the tokens were issued by the Co-op sometime in or around 1982 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the operation here in Rimbey and will be sending young James the token along with some other special items and information regarding the ‘wood’, as they are referred to by collectors.
Rimbey isn’t the only place where a letter to the editor has resulted in an addition to the collection. Atchison said people throughout Ontario and even more obscure locations such as Wadena and Gull Lake, Saskatchewan as well as another Alberta community have also contacted him.
“The best thing about this is that this has been a great way for James to learn a lot about the other half of his heritage. He’s learned so much – we look up these towns on the map as the tokens come in, sometimes we get little brochures of town histories – in fact we just got one the other day from Rocky Mountain House in Alberta and they actually included a history of their museum, so we’re learning lots,” Atchison said.
“The great thing about it is he is learning social skills and we also make sure he sends thank-you letters to everyone who sends him the tokens so it’s become a great family project for all of us,” he added.
For more information on the hobby and the wooden tokens, Atchison recommends checking out: www.julaine.ca/canbiblio