junior e-migration Posted June 5, 2011 Share Posted June 5, 2011 Back in the fifties a company called Gates Rubber Co. had a promotion across the U.S.. The Gates Mystery Man would drive around the country in a car with a worn fan belt or a bad coolant hose. If he pulled into a service station and if the attendant spotted the problem he was given a holder with five Morgan Silver Dollars and a congratulatory letter. My Dad owned a DX station back in those days and he checked under the hood for this guy and noticed that he had a worn fan belt. Dad won the five silver dollars and they had been missing since my Mom moved about 25 years ago. I went home to visit my Sister and Mom last week, so we went on a treasure quest. After 30 or so boxes we found them in the very bottom of a box of old letters. I'm still trying to learn how to post pictures and when I succeed I will post some pictures. I'm just so glad that we found this piece of family history. My Mom had a yard sale about the time she moved and we always thought that she may have sold them by accident. A great family mystery has been solved. Unfortunately they are all 1921's, but to me they're priceless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FishyOne Posted June 5, 2011 Share Posted June 5, 2011 Great story! Thanks for sharing! I worked for the Gates Rubber Company for several years and my step-father worked there for 32 years and retired from there. I saw a 5 piece Morgan set like the one you've described for sale on eBay a few years for melt value, which was about $70 at that time, and bought it. They were all polished '21s but it was a really cool set and holder. I took the coins out and gave the holder to a friend who still worked for Gates at that time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cladking Posted June 5, 2011 Share Posted June 5, 2011 Interesting. There's a Gate's Mystery Man token (medal) that was, perhaps, awarded with the dollars or in lieu of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RWB Posted June 5, 2011 Share Posted June 5, 2011 When one of the Gates Rubber company products failed, did that result in a kid names "William Gates....."? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FishyOne Posted June 5, 2011 Share Posted June 5, 2011 When one of the Gates Rubber company products failed, did that result in a kid names "William Gates....."? ..........and now you know the rest of the story. That guy's name was actually Charlie Gates though. He was the founder and owner of this billion dollar company for many years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
junior e-migration Posted June 6, 2011 Author Share Posted June 6, 2011 I have read that as time went by the awards became less and less exciting. I think that they went to half dollars and later on it was like two half dollars and a token, probably the one that cladking mentioned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillJones Posted June 6, 2011 Share Posted June 6, 2011 That's a great story! It was great that the dollars were saved, and you were able to find them. (thumbs u Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnny9434 Posted June 6, 2011 Share Posted June 6, 2011 cooool and im glad you did finally find them. its a good memory Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ModCrewman-migration Posted June 6, 2011 Share Posted June 6, 2011 Very cool, my father's service station actually had "the largest Gate's inventory in area" and when going through his collection I too found a few Gates holders. Not sure if they were "Mystery Man" holders or not, but I think he had 2-3 of them, also similarly polished. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkyMan Posted June 6, 2011 Share Posted June 6, 2011 cooool and im glad you did finally find them. its a good memory ditto! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e1cnr Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 I just got a group, did some research and found this mine are all 1921-D and are glued into the holder they are all toned, except where the glue is the following are pictures of it == Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moneyhoney Posted December 12, 2014 Share Posted December 12, 2014 Great looking photos!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coinman_23885 Posted December 12, 2014 Share Posted December 12, 2014 Try some acetone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
