During the 1920s and 1930s, a number of manufacturers of bar soap and other soap products battling for brand supremacy employed the use of metallic tokens to entice consumers to buy their products.

Chief among the issuers were Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati, Colgate-Palmolive in Chicago (successor to Palmolive-Peet), and James S. Kirk & Co., a manufacturer of fine soaps in Chicago. The token campaigns were just one means by which the companies could advertise their products. Print, radio and television promotions were added to the sales initiatives.

Soap promotions continue, as anyone who watches television or reads the Sunday newspaper with its colorful coupon inserts can attest. Soap tokens are no longer part of manufacturers' promotional methods.

These tokens remain, however, fascinating, and are considered very collectible by collectors of such advertising memorabilia.

Collectors seeking to acquire specimens of the tokens issued by the various soap companies should be aware that the tokens were produced in a variety of shapes and compositions, and each was valued differently and so stated on the token. Round, octagonal, unequal octagonal, four-point scalloped (cloverleaf), square (rounded corners) and rectangular (with opposite corners cut off) tokens are known. Many of the tokens are composed of aluminum, although specimens are known in brass, gilt brass, and white metal.

Upon their initial production, the tokens were good for a free bar, cake or box of a company's particular soap product. These topical tokens - collected for their overall theme of soap or soap products - also fall under the category for "good for" tokens (they could be exchanged for, or were "good for," a particular product).

Later promotions changed the values to require a purchase in exchange for a free, specified amount of the company's brand: for example, promotions of "buy one, get one free" or "three bars for the price of one," or simply so much off the price of a specific amount of a product purchased.

According to J.W. Baum in A Catalog of Soap Tokens: "Tokens were sometimes used to introduce a new brand name, giving a quantity of an established product with the purchase of a stated quantity of the new product. Some of the tokens combined a toilet soap with a washing soap, while others used two trade names, both either being a toilet, or a cleaning soap."

Token and medal dealers that attend many of the major coin shows around the country, advertise in numismatic periodicals such as Coin World, operate regular mail-bid sales or offer auctions on eBay often will carry examples of such material. Although the 1920s and 1930s witnessed the bulk of the soap token activity, earlier store cards exist advertising the businesses of soap merchants.

The advent of soap tokens owes its genesis to the development of the product itself.

Up until the time of the Revolutionary War, soap was an extremely expensive commodity that only the rich could afford. When French chemist Nicholas Leblanc discovered in 1790 that common table salt, sodium chloride, could be substituted for the alkalis often derived from wood ash in soap production, production time and thus cost was reduced so most consumers could buy the product.

Commercial soap production began in the United States near the turn of the 19th century. However, it wasn't until after the Industrial Revolution began that the soap products began to be marketed outside the local area in which they were produced.

Beginning on April 12, 1837, William Procter and James Gamble started making and selling their soap and candles. On Aug. 22, they formalized their partnership under the company banner Procter & Gamble at the behest of the mutual father-in-law, Alexander Norris. According to the Procter & Gamble Web site, www.pg.com/, William Procter and James Gamble might never have met and launched what has became one of the world's largest corporate giants had they not married sisters.

P&G was founded during the Hard Times era, when many banks folded during the economic panic of 1837. The firm built a new plant in Cincinnati to sustain the burgeoning enterprise in the late 1850s, according to the corporate history.

In 1879, James Norris Gamble, son of the founder and a trained chemist, developed an inexpensive white soap equal to high-quality, imported castiles. The inspiration for the soap's name - Ivory - came to Harley Procter, the founder's son, as he read the words "out of ivory palaces" in the Bible one Sunday in church, according to the firm.

By 1890, P&G was selling more than 30 different types of soap, including Ivory.

To meet this increasing demand, the company began expanding its operations outside Cincinnati. Its research laboratory was as busy as its plants. New products were rolled out one after another - Ivory Flakes, a soap in flake form for washing clothes and dishes; Chipso, the first soap designed for washing machines; Dreft, the first synthetic household detergent; and the first all-vegetable shortening, Crisco.

The new products were marketed through new techniques, including radio "soap operas," product sampling and promotional premiums. "Ma Perkins," a radio serial program sponsored by P&G's Oxydol soap powder, aired nationally beginning in 1933. Its popularity led P&G brands to sponsor numerous new "soap operas." Faithful listeners, mainly women, became faithful supporters of P&G brands at the grocery.

Tokens soon became an important tool in Procter & Gamble's promotional arsenal.

Among the tokens issued by P&G is a hexagonal token GOOD FOR / 3 CAKES / LAVA SOAP / (MEDIUM SIZE) / FOR ONLY / 10¢. The token is referred to as a coupon check in the dealer's redemption criteria inscribed on the back.

A rectangular P&G token offers a premium GOOD FOR / 1 PKG. OXYDOL / (MEDIUM SIZE) / FREE OR 10¢ / ON THE PURCHASE OF / 1 PKG. OXYDOL / (LARGE SIZE).

An unequal octagonal token was issued by P&G that was GOOD FOR / 1 CAKE / IVORY SOAP / (MEDIUM SIZE) / FREE WITH THE / PURCHASE OF / 1 PKG. / IVORY FLAKES / (LARGE SIZE). An oblong token in the shape of a bar of soap was issued to promote the perfumed Camay soap. The token was GOOD FOR / 1 CAKE FREE / CAMAY / WITH PURCHASE OF TWO.

Another token issuer that challenged P&G then, and now, is the predecessor to Colgate-Palmolive in Chicago, which traces its roots to the Kansas-based soap manufacturer, Peet Brothers.

Peet Brothers was founded in 1872. Their products included Crystal White Laundry Soap, Crystal White Soap Flakes, Creme Oil Toilet Soap, Imperial Peroxide Toilet Soap, Sea Foam Naphtha Washing Powder, Borax Washing Compound and many others. The company's main plant was located in Kansas City.

In 1864, Caleb Johnson had founded a soap company called B.J. Johnson Soap Co., in Milwaukee. In 1898, this company introduced a soap made of palm and olive oils, called Palmolive. It was so successful that the B.J. Johnson Soap Co. changed its name to Palmolive in 1917. In 1927, Palmolive merged with Peet Brothers to became Palmolive Peet.

In 1928, Palmolive Peet joined the Colgate Company to create the Colgate-Palmolive-Peet Company. In 1953, the company's name was simplified to Colgate-Palmolive. Among the tokens the Palmolive Peet Co. issued was a round token GOOD FOR / ONE CAKE / PALMOLIVE / SOAP FREE / WHEN YOU BUY / ONE CAKE.

James S. Kirk & Co. issued a number of tokens to promote its new soap products, including two octagonal tokens with the center punched out. One offers FREE / 10 CENT CAKE / KIRK'S COCOA / HARD WATER CASTILE / WHEN YOU BUY / TWO CAKES / KIRK'S FLAKE / SOAP / WITH THIS / CHECK.

Another offers a FREE / 10 CENT CAKE / KIRK'S COCOA / HARD WATER CASTILE / WHEN YOU BUY / TWO CAKES / AMERICAN FAMILY / SOAP / WITH THIS / CHECK.

An early American store card issued in 1899 and bearing the portrait of Adm. George Dewey recommends that customers WASH CLOTHES / WITH / KIRKMAN'S / BORAX SOAP / BEST OF ALL / 1899. The Kirkman's Borax Soap token is the most common of the dozens of Dewey store cards issued following the May 1, 1898, Battle of Manila Bay, during which Dewey commanded the victorious American squadron.

Soap tokens offer insight to early product advertising, and how tokens played an important role in getting Americans to part with their money for an ever-growing market of consumer goods.