Posted 13 years ago
Militarist
(296 items)
Not so long ago a job with the rail road meant a life time of security and many employees earned long service awards like this 50 year gold service award which was also a life time pass. Many worked beyond the 50 year mark! Looking through the old Illinois Central magazines I see that the 50 year awards were not rare and that there was also a silver 40 year service pass. Since so many were issued these passes should be fairly common but I wonder how many have survived the high gold prices back in 1980 and now?
These are NOT common as you'd think. I'm sure quite a few went to the jewelers to be melted down but many families still hold on to these. The do come up for sale now and again and used to go $500 or more but that was before gold went crazy.
They are worth their weight in gold, literally, but are highly sought after by collectors. The Illinois Central made a big production of issuing these passes and threw a banquet in Chicago each year or two to celebrate handing them out.
I don't know of another railroad that issued these on that scale.
Thanks Larry, I forgot to mention that these passes came in a nice leather wallet like holder.
I have one of these with the original wallet that my great uncle received. wondering what the value may be. I know the value of the gold but not sure if there is an up value for the nostalgic component