It may have some value in the exonumia community (i.e.the community that collects medallions and other non-legal-tender items), but since it's not legal tender, it's not technically a coin, so it will have no numismatic value.

Timewarp,

If your token was made before 1909, when the new Chicago street address system was adopted, the 172-176 N. Clark location would have been north of the river, with a (1N) address at the north bank of the river.

If the token is made of copper and is about the size of a penny, then it may date before the Great Fire of 1871 and perhaps be a token used by the infamous "runners" who enticed newcomers to a shady hotels or boarding houses. However, the word "bar" sounds too contemporary for pre-1871.

hth

There is a book on Illinois tokens of that sort, ie. "Good For" or "Trade Tokens". Trade Tokens of Illinois by Ore Vacketta, out of print, but available from the publisher at www.exonumia.com . World Exonumia offers a large number of books on tokens/medals/exonumia at www.exonumia.com/books.htm

I find the tokens are handy for verifying the addresses of places.

According to SOWPODS (the combination of Scrabble dictionaries used around the world) there are 1 words with the pattern EX--U--A. That is, eight letter words with 1st letter E and 2nd letter X and 5th letter U and 8th letter A. In alphabetical order, they are:

exonumia

According to SOWPODS (the combination of Scrabble dictionaries used around the world) there are 1 words with the pattern ---NUMI-. That is, eight letter words with 4th letter N and 5th letter U and 6th letter M and 7th letter I. In alphabetical order, they are:

exonumia

According to SOWPODS (the combination of Scrabble dictionaries used around the world) there are 2 words with the pattern ---NU-IA. That is, eight letter words with 4th letter N and 5th letter U and 7th letter I and 8th letter A. In alphabetical order, they are:

exonumia

planuria