Suez canal 1865 coin / token

[dooly]

Hi all .. going through the large collection i have just acquired i found this .. any information on it please .. the canal was not open at this date ?

[Conder101]

This is a company token for Borel Lavalley et Cie, one of the companies that was building the canal. They apparently worked kind of like a company store token. The workers were paid with them and they could be used to purchase goods from the "company store". They appear to be rather scarce. Some information and a couple pictures can be found on this page. http://www.kiac-usa.com/SuezCanalTokens.html

and here:

http://www.coinfactswiki.com/wiki/Egypt_1865_50_centimes_Suez_Canal_KM-Tn6

[dooly]

Cheers .. top information .. shame about the condition would have been a nice token