Oh, what a difference 32 years can make!
The following token is in celebration of Sears' centennial anniversary as a company. Founded in 1886, they had grown to have many stores and were doing booming business. For those of us who were around in 1986, you might remember shopping in a Sears store. Now, 32 years later, they've filed for bankruptcy and have been closing stores for a while. Still, here's a look at a token that celebrated brighter times.
I'm sure you'll be happy to know that this token "Contains Authentic Material." What does that even mean? Does it mean that the token is made of genuine copper, not counterfeit copper? I didn't know, so I had to look it up. Here's what Numista had to say:
This is a Statue of Liberty token issued by the Sears Company as a promotion in 1986. This token is made from actual material from the Statue of Liberty which was removed during the restoration process and is also commemorating the second century of the Sears Company.
The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island were restored from 1982-1986 to coincide with the 100th Anniversary in 1986. All funds were contributed from individual citizens and corporations. Although it is a National Park, no U.S. government funds were used in it's restoration, all resources used were in the form of donations.
source
There you have it. It's made from old pieces of the actual Statue of Liberty!
I'm not sure how they worked out that deal with the group that was restoring the Statue, but it seems they had some forward-thinking marketing people on salary at the time.
When was the last time you shopped at Sears?
