I am new to this board. I am not a trapper but Paul gave me access so maybe someone could help me identify this token. I found it in some of my late father-in-laws stuff. It is about 1.5 inches (35 mm) in diameter. It looks like brass or copper. The front looks crude but there is some stippling on the bottom of the beaver(?). Then someone took some time on the intricate design on the reverse (third picture). Maybe this is a turtle. Some online searches show some Hudson Bay tokens but most are much more refined than this.

I am not sure this is the right forum, so any help is appreciated.

Jim

The few I have seen presumed to be correct the HB is connected. Lots of fake ones show up on eBay and it’s just hard to tell because some are faked so well and they’ve been doing it for over 50 years. I recently saw a Northwest company token on eBay that looked nice except the date on it was 1840. The Northwest company was forced to merge with the Hudson Bay company in 1820. Most original tokens were hole punched so they could be strung and the ones presumed to be original were made out of a pewter type material. In my opinion the HB and the beaver outline on yours is just too crisp but who knows. If I can find out any more information I’ll post it.

Thanks, I have not been able to find any information. Any information is appreciated.

There was a thread on trapperman in 2018 on this subject. Not sure how to find it on this site but if you search on the web ‘Hudson bay token on trapperman’ it will pop up second from top. I have handled the tokens Joe Goodman speaks of and was at the exact spot where they were found and feel these are the real deal.

Reach out the the Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature Winnipeg because they have all the HBC archives that were sent over from overseas.

Thanks for the tips. If anything comes of it, I will keep you posted.