USA 1930's - Ceylon MN
H. P. Andrews

USA Five cents, Ten cents, Twenty-five cents and Fifty cents Merchant Trade tokens from H. P. Andrews, Grocery & General Store of Ceylon, Martin County, Minnesota. Opened in 1908 and operated till he died at age 63 in 1943. The store was purchased by Henry Saggau in 1945 and was know till 1949 as Mrs. Harry P. Andrews Grocery.

SPECIFICATIONS
Value5 cents
AlloyAluminum
Diameter27.3 / 25.4 mm
Thickness1.4 mm
Weight1.68 gms
ShapeOctagon
EdgePlain
DieAxisO°
 hpandrews_ceylon_mn_5c_obverse hpandrews_ceylon_mn_5c_reverse
Token Catalog #171701
Value10 cents
AlloyAluminum
Diameter27.1 / 25.4 mm
Thickness1.4 mm
Weight1.64 gms
ShapeOctagon
EdgePlain
DieAxisO°
 hpandrews_ceylon_mn_10c_obverse hpandrews_ceylon_mn_10c_reverse
Token Catalog #171703
Value25 cents
AlloyAluminum
Diameter26.9 / 25.4 mm
Thickness1.4 mm
Weight1.63 gms
ShapeOctagon
EdgePlain
DieAxisO°
 hpandrews_ceylon_mn_25c_obverse hpandrews_ceylon_mn_25c_reverse
Token Catalog #171704
Value50 cents
AlloyAluminum
Diameter27.3 / 25.4 mm
Thickness1.4 mm
Weight1.6? gms
ShapeOctagon
EdgePlain
DieAxisO°
 hpandrews_ceylon_mn_50c_obverse hpandrews_ceylon_mn_50c_reverse
Token Catalog #171705

Obverse : Image of a bow-tie at center with name H. P. ANDREWS, above along periphery, and town CEYLON,   MINN. below in two lines, all within dot-circle, inside a raised rim.
Reverse : Large numeric value 5¢, 10¢, 25¢ or50¢ at center with the legend GOOD FOR on top and IN MERCHANDISE below at bottom along the periphery, all within dot-circle, inside a raised rim.

The owner of the Grocery store Andrews, and Christensen, the owner of the Hardware store were brothers-in-law. They together built probably the two most beautiful business buildings in town. Entering through a common door, the stores were on either side of a stairway which led to apartments above. It was operational in 1930. Gerald Rosenberg remembers they had "four" grocery stores in town when he was in school (1945-1956). Two of the Christensen's sons are still living, and ran their Hardware store until maybe the early 1990's. A construction business is using the buildings now for their enterprise.

The Ceylon Post office was established on l899 Oct.16th, by Frank Kellogg, who became Ceylon's first postmaster. Kellogg's son-in-law, Henry P. Andrews succeeded him as postmaster in 1904 till 1915. The city of Ceylon grew up very fast around the Northwestern Railroad tracks, which stretches across Martin Co. The older Post Office established in 1862 at nearby Tenhassen closed.

Any other details about H. P. Andrews Grocery ?
Please send me any information.

Ceylon Post Office
Ceylon Post Office

Henry P. Andrews General Store & Grocery 1908-1944; Mrs. Henry P. Andrews Grocery 1945-1949
I wonder if Frank Kellogg the first Postmaster of Ceylon is connected to Frank Kellogg (1856-1937) who lived in St. Paul Minnesota, and was Senator(1917-1923), was Secretary of State(1925-1929) under President Calvin Coolidge, and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1930.

The 5¢ token was obtained for me in the 2002 December by Larry Dziubek a collector of Tokens in Pittsburgh from Jim Strong. Thanks to both
The 10¢ 25¢ and 50¢ tokens are from e-Bay Auctions in 2004 July, 2003 September and a MailBid Auction 2004 July, I won from a Token dealer in Minnesota.

I thank Gerald Rosenberg of Ceylon MN for the history.

These Lakdiva collection Tokens are on-Loan to the Ceylon Area Historical Society and have been on display at their Museum in Ceylon Mn subsequent to my visit in 2005 September.

Images above are of a higher grade token photoshoped from 400 dpi photograph posted in tokencatalog.com and the images are displayed at 254 dpi.

See also the Ceylon MN token site for more stories.