Ride the all steel Raleigh

[gerard974]

Hello
in the year 1980 Joop Zoetemelk win the "tour de France" with a cycle Raleight but Laurent Fignon loose in year 1989
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raleigh_Bicycle_Company
best regards  gerard

[bhx7]

Just purchased 2 of these tokens. They are 2 different varieties. Different text sizes and bikes. They are also slightly different in size. See info with images. Did anyone ever find out where they came from and when they were issued?

Thanks
Brian

[Pellinore]

I did some random searching in large newspaper archives and found the connection Raleigh + "all steel" or "all-steel", once "allsteel" in a number of newspaper ads. From 1908-1919 in the Sunday Telegraph, and then again from 1942-1948, often accompanied by mentions of their Dunlop tires or Sturmey-Archer gear (still well-known brands, too). Also in The Guardian and The Observer in 1942-1944. British-only.

Typographically I think these tokens date from about 1910. But what were they for?

-- Paul

[FosseWay]

But what were they for?

Complete guesswork incoming...

I suspect this comes into the same general "advertising jeton" category as, for example, the "farthings" issued by businesses in the UK in the 19th century, or the Pear's Soap/Allan Dahl etc. countermarks on other countries' large coppers. The likely later date of these Raleigh pieces can perhaps explain why they neither imitate the size and colour of regal coinage nor are overstamped on other things.

Regarding whether "advertising jetons" should be seen as tokens or not, I've generally taken the view that the issuers must have had a reason to expend resources on making them, and that that reason must have had a generally positive effect on their business. It's hard to see what that benefit is if the business simply gives a jeton to a customer to say thanks for their custom, and then the customer loses it, puts it in a drawer or throws it away. I think, therefore, that these objects must have carried some form of value - a discount off another purchase, for example - without stating it baldly, which might have fallen foul of the law. Either it encouraged repeat custom from the person who originally received it, or they gave it to someone else, saying "Use this at X shop, they'll give you a penny off" or whatever. 

So, in this case, someone buys a bike from a bike shop and gets one of these, which they then either use themselves or pass on to someone else to get a small discount when they inevitably have to go back to the shop for a new inner tube or a puncture repair kit.

[Figleaf]

Redwine's specimen is the same as your second, but Malcolm's in the OP is different again from both of yours (saddle, handlebar, reflection of front wheel in typical British puddle )

Peter