Dating Arras Tokens

Very few of the Arras tokens are dated, and for those that are dated, the dates are not necessarily a reliable indicator of the year of issue. The few that I've seen that are dated have nearly all been dated in the 1950's (one dated 1969 is known), so if we accept these dates as reasonably accurate, then Arras tokens were in use in the 1950's. Estimating the dates of undated tokens is tricky and fraught with error, but until more data is found it is all we have to go on. The dated tokens are among the older-appearing ones, though I would estimate that some of the other tokens might be 10-20 years older. This would place the oldest Arras tokens to about the 1930's.

Some Arras as struck over Mexican coins, and I have seen one where the date on the underlying coin can be read as "1953" so this token was probably struck in the 1950's, although it could have been made later.

Stylistic comparisons between Arras and Mexican coins are problematic for several reasons, including 1) many of the symbols (eagle with snake, scales, liberty cap) appear on many coins, from very old to modern, 2) Arras could have been modeled after older coins rather than current circulating coins, 3) many of the common Arras designs (couple in church, clasped hands, etc) are not found on Mexican coins, and 4) the same Arras design may have been used for years, or decades. Keeping these difficulties in mind, what can we learn from design comparisons?

These design comparison strongly suggest that most of the Arras tokens date from after 1905, and more likely from around the 1920's or later. Some must date from after the 1970's. I cannot rule out the possibiity that some were made before 1905, but I have found no strong evidence for Arras tokens that early.

Mexico experienced a shortage of coins during the period 1911-1918, due first to the revolution, and then to World War I. It seems plausible that the first Arras tokens date from this period, although I have not found any firm evidence that this is the case.

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