Quote from Pioneer on January 2, 2015, 5:50 pm

I was doing some digging recently on the King Cotton Carnival held in Augusta Georgia between 1890 and 1893 (related to the HK-626 piece). It seems that this event was held annually, first in 1890 (14-16 January 1890), and subsequently each year until 1893, when it died out (likely due to the World's Columbian Expo drawing away the crowds).

The Trades Display and Carnival Association met in November 1889 and decided to hold a carnival in 1890 at the annual Georgia Poultry and Pet Stock Association Fair. The motivation related to hosting a similar event that New Orleans had for the financial draw. In the second year the carnival was held (20-23 January 1891), a medal (unlisted so-called, see John Raymond's site) was issued both in white metal and bronze. Parades and displays were held, and the last night of the event, a ball was held at the Arlington Hotel in which the identify of "King Cotton II" was revealed.

In the third year the carnival was held (26-28 January 1892), at least 50,000 people came to the events, and on the last night of the "King Cotton III" was revealed as Mr. T.C. Bligh, a prominent local businessman. HK-626 (imaged below) stems from this third year. In January 1893, the final year, only 15,000 people attended, and the event closed with a "King Cotton IV." As with many other SCDs, events such as these were important to share new innovations and usually were financially beneficial for the cities that held them. Clearly the WCE of 1892-1893 benefited Chicago as did San Francisco's Midwinter Fair in 1894. I did find note that the Arlington Hotel in Augusta GA burned down in the late 1890s due to a fire in the block of buildings it occupied. It would be interesting to know if there are any tokens from that hotel.