Sara Runyon     Mingo County, West Virginia

      Sara Runyon was apparently one of many merchants in Nolan who used scrip for their transactions.  Nolan was home to the Northeast Lumber Company and Winifrede Block Mining Company.  Nolan is located a few miles down river from Williamson, Mingo County, West Virginia and was situated on the Norfolk & Western Railway.

     There is only one denomination of Sara Runyon scrip known, and that is the one dollar piece (#2079 xx 100), pictured.

      This token was supposedly an unauthorized re-strike, made in 1976 on factory dies, and is only occasionally found.  However, I have been unable to find a factory die which would resemble the reverse of the token.  The reverse is Master Metal (MM2) by Ingle Schierloh, except it states, “In Merchandise—Not Transferable.”  Normally it would say, “In Trade.” By contrast, the obverse states, “In Trade Only.”  Why, then, would it have “In Merchandise” on the reverse.

       To be sure, this is an interesting piece.  What makes it so puzzling is that on January 3, 1934, Ingle Schierloh Company shipped Sara Runyon 600 pieces of scrip in denominations of one penny to one dollar, 100 pieces if each.  The existing one dollar piece may be a re-strike, so it would be interesting to know what the originals were and what became of them.

Jim Lackey, submitted March 2008