(1840) Token HT-205B, Lakewood NJ

Coin Details

Description

This 1840 Bergen Iron Works token from Lakewood, New Jersey is a variant in the company store series produced for the Pine Barrens bog iron smelting operation. Like other Bergen Iron Works tokens, this piece served as company scrip redeemable at the furnace community's company store for provisions, dry goods, and other necessities that workers could not easily obtain from the isolated Pine Barrens location. The company store system at bog iron furnaces like Bergen Iron Works was both a practical necessity and a source of controversy. In remote locations where no independent merchants operated, company stores provided essential goods — but workers frequently complained that prices were inflated and that the scrip system trapped them in a cycle of company debt. The tokens document this system of industrial labor relations that persisted in various forms through the late nineteenth century. Bergen Iron Works operated during the final decades of Pine Barrens bog iron production, before the discovery of superior ore deposits in the Great Lakes region and the development of anthracite coal smelting shifted the American iron industry westward and northward. The tokens preserve the memory of an industry that shaped New Jersey's landscape and economy for over a century.

Rarity Notes

Scarce. Company store variant. Rarity R-3.

Cross References

Rulau HT-205B