Collector of coal scatter tags, (small discs thrown in coal)

Hi- new member from Missouri here, not a coal burner but a wood burner. I live in western MO and no house coal available within 300 miles. I once worked at an Illinois mine that sold high sulfur 6"x3" lump coal. I collect the small discs that used to be thrown in house coal known as scatter tags; I have about 100 different kinds from all over the US. There are occasionally tags for sale on Ebay but not many from the Anthracite region of PA. Perhaps some members of this Board know of historians, collectors of coal industry memorabilia, or even have some old PA or anthracite tags from their coal bin laying around and would be willing to share, sell, or trade. Are there any tag collectors on this board? So we dont abuse the board and waste other member's time, if you can help me, email me at kcwyksxjuno.com - just substitute @ for the x. Thanks. John in Missouri

people still collect these, I personally never collected them but know ive crossed paths with them over the years... im not sure its done currently, but when you find old barns, coal bins and stuff you find them easy when looking for them. I listed an old farm in east bridgewater last year and it had an old dilapidated barn out back that was loaded with these as well as those old milk bottle tops. I will keep my eyes open for some for you

I have 2 of different styles from here in Utah. One is thin cardboard and the other is aluminum...hint...see the red and silver thing to the right

I posted a photo of the aluminum ones in this thread...
Blue Coal?

Here's a photo of the paper ones.

Thanks for showing me those Rockwood. Any chance you are trading or selling those, email me at my address in the original message. Thanks.

Wow, those are pretty cool. What was the purpose of putting them in with the coal? I'd imagine they were free advertising. The paper/cardboard ones people would burn, but the aluminum ones would have to be picked out.

Edit: did some reading, the cardboard or paper ones were used for advertising and the metal ones were used as money to pay for stuff in the company store. "16 tons and what do you get". Pretty neat stuff.

Im on Fire: Because all coal looks alike, the producers wanted some way to make their product look different. So they came up with the idea of scatter tags. Some used paper, some used foil, and the foil ones melted in the fire and went out with the ash. These werent used like money. You're thinking about "scrip" which was coins minted by various mining companies that were given to miners as pay, that they could use at their company store.

I have some scatter tags that say "Old Company Lehigh", and a few others. I will have to dig though my collection of coal stuff.

Great, now there is something else I'll be on the lookout for but I don't think there will be many in my neck of the woods,

coalboy1 wrote:Im on Fire: Because all coal looks alike, the producers wanted some way to make their product look different. So they came up with the idea of scatter tags. Some used paper, some used foil, and the foil ones melted in the fire and went out with the ash. These werent used like money. You're thinking about "scrip" which was coins minted by various mining companies that were given to miners as pay, that they could use at their company store.

Thank you. Yes, I was thinking of Scrip. I didn't know the aluminum ones would melt in the fire.