Why collect arcade tokens?

There are a lot of other token collectors, but most specialize in 18th Century trade tokens, which are really neat, very historical, and are often ungodly expensive (though still cheap compared to rare US coins). In addition, the "antique" trade token field has been relatively well "staked out". Many discoveries remain, but the average trade token has already been identified and cataloged.

Frankly, the big advantage of modern arcade tokens is that they're cheap (and so am I). There are other reasons, including:

Arcade tokens are still in use, and thus are a "living" collectable (this also means that you can start a collection as close as your local arcade) [This is less true than when I wrote it, most arcades are using cards rather than tokens now, and arcade tokens may soon be a relic of days gone by in the same way that trade tokens are now.]
There are huge numbers of arcade tokens. While this can be daunting, it also means that I have years of happily searching through junk boxes to look forward to. I collected US coins for a while, but found that I lost interest when I had acquired most of the cheap coins.
Many (most?) arcade tokens have not been cataloged. Alpert and Smith wrote an excellent book in 1984, but it was not complete even then, and is very out of date now. If you compile a good guide to arcade tokens, the collectors will beat a path to your door (all 50 of us!).
You can never have a complete collection. While this may seem like a downside, it does "take the pressure off". Do you have a "complete" collection of Liberty Head nickels but feel unfulfilled because you will never own the 1913? Not a problem with arcade tokens! You'll never even get close!

Return to main token page.