Here’s another in our series of the many different Illinois provisional sales tax tokens.
This is the provisional token from Mattoon, IL. It is listed in the M&D book as number “L59”, held the value of a quarter of a cent at the time, had a rarity rating of R4 at the time of the M&D book and is made of aluminum.
Not only aluminum composition, but a somewhat soft alloy, as this token is difficult to find without a fair number of scratches and dents. Although this “only” rates as an R-4 rarity, it is surprisingly difficult to find in what would be termed MS-65 or above by numismatic grading standards. You usually need to look through a fairly large pile of these before you can spot a truly nice BU (Beautifully Uncirculated) example.