Old Tokens to Existing Duluth Establishments

What's the purpose of these tokens? Are they like drink tickets?

Yes, most bar tokens are like a drink ticket and are redeemable for one drink. Some of the older ones, however, like the Kom-on-Inn and Owls Club, have a specific cash value at the bar.

 

The purpose for this is generally that sometimes through buy-one-get-one-free deals or someone else buying you a drink, you might have a drink in front of you and either a) don't want your free one sitting out getting warm, or b) don't want to feel obligated to drink the free one at that particular time and would rather redeem it at another time.

A lot of bars use plastic cups or poker chips for drink tokens, but in those cases it is expected the customer will redeem the free drink during the same visit, making it an inferior system.