| SPECIFICATIONS | |
| Denomination | 5 cents |
| Alloy | Plated Brass |
| Diameter | 21.2 mm |
| Thickness | 1.8 mm |
| Weight | 4.3 gms |
| Shape | Round |
| Edge | Plain |
| DieAxis | O° |
Top Hat Cafe
An USA Five Cents Trade token from Top Hat Cafe of Ceylon, Martin County, Minnesota which closed in 1946.
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| Unidentified | ||||||||||||||||||||
Obverse : Image of a TopHat at center with name
TOP HAT CAFE above and town
CEYLON . MINN. below along the periphery.
Reverse : Large 5 c at center with the slogan
GOOD FOR on top and
IN TRADE below at bottom along the periphery.
The Silver(?) plating has peeled a bit just above GOOD on reverse
showing the brass token below.
I am told by Rich Hartzog of
Exonumia that most 5c MN tokens
are fairly common. slot machine tokens, from ca. 1930's.
I first came across this place in 1997 November when my
son searching an encyclopedia on cdrom with keyword Ceylon, brought
up the page that said US vice president Walter Mondale was
born in Ceylon.
I sent E-mail to four residents I found listed under Ceylon MN and had
this illuminating correspondence with
Gerald Rosenberg who said I quote
"The railroad came through this part of Minnesota in 1899, and that
is when the town was born. At that time, legend has it, there was a
gathering in a local general store, were they were trying to pick out
a name for their new settlement. Someone saw a box of Tea that was
from "Ceylon", and suggested that as a name. Apparently the name was
adopted!
Ceylon has been my address for all my fifty some years, except
for a couple when I was in the US military. When I was a boy, it was
a very busy town, with the population of something just over 500
souls. As I write this, about the only thing still active in town is
the bank, a grocery story, grain terminal, post office, plus a couple
other small businesses. The High School, just this summer has been
torn down, because of the lack of students. Sad to lose - many fond
memories there!"
Top Hat in its early years was a tavern. Patrons commonly shake dice for drinks with the bar tender. Rather than gamble cash register money, the Bar tender would give any winner a token that was good for trade in for a beer.
According to the
history
In the early days Ceylon was known as the
"Biggest Little Town in Minnesota"
The population was growing in this tight knit little boom town. Many
businesses prospered. Two hardware stores, two pool halls, a drug
store, hotel, hatchery, clothing stores, a garage, barber-shops a
blacksmith shop, harness shop ...
Farm families came to town to shop on Wednesday and Saturday nights to
sell their produce and to buy their week's supply of groceries. The
kids went to the movie theater to watch cowboy shows and the women
visited in the cafe and grocery stores while the men went across the
street.
It is
reported,
by the grapevine, that Ceylon hosted illicit gambling games during
this time including card games; dice, punch-boards, and one-armed-bandits.
Many of the games were played on Saturday nights. Several out of town
brothers wore their suits under their coveralls. In the wee small
hours of the morning when the game was over, they skinned out of their
coveralls and attended early morning mass before going home.
Problems were on going for the gamblers, with too many raids
taking place at the pool-hall and hotel. In 1910 there are 4 saloons,
which temperance people of Ceylon were anxious to put out of business.
Snow in Ceylon 1918
| Ceylon Variety Store
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In 1946 Ernie Thompson purchased the Top Hat Cafe, and turned
it into the Ceylon Variety Store. This store changed hands few times
and closed in 1964 and was purchased in 1967 by Lemke Awning Company.
The State Bank of Ceylon, at 104 West Main Street which was
adjoining now includes the area of the original building. I am glad to
have opened an account in that bank.
Marlen E. Bents, President of the Bank however doubts that the TopHat was known for gambling which he remembers took place at the Ceylon Hotel and the Ditz's Pool Hall.
Ceylon celebrated its centenary in 2000 July and now has a
website
with a lot of historical images of the place. Ceylon MN is few miles south of interstate 90 (exit 93 route 263) and just north of the Iowa border. | 
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The token was scanned at 300 dpi and the images are displayed at 300 dpi.
This token was obtained in the 2001 August on ebay from a seller from MN, USA
I thank Gerald Rosenberg
for the history of Ceylon MN and Rich Hartzog for his comments on this
token.
When was the "Top Hat Cafe" opened ? Any interesting stories about it ?
Please send me any information.
This webpage on Americana hosted by Lakdiva : a website for Coins and Coffee Tokens of Ceylon (SriLanka).