Gates Rubber Award

[junior e-migration]

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.

[FishyOne]

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.

[cladking]

Interesting.

 

There's a Gate's Mystery Man token (medal) that was, perhaps, awarded with the dollars or in lieu of them.

[RWB]

When one of the Gates Rubber company products failed, did that result in a kid names "William Gates....."?

[FishyOne]

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.

[junior e-migration]

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.

[BillJones]

That's a great story! It was great that the dollars were saved, and you were able to find them. (thumbs u

[johnny9434]

cooool and im glad you did finally find them. its a good memory

[ModCrewman-migration]

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.

[SkyMan]

cooool and im glad you did finally find them. its a good memory

 

ditto!

[e1cnr]

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 ==

 

[moneyhoney]

Great looking photos!!

[coinman_23885]

Try some acetone.