I hoped someone more knowledgeable than myself would speak up. I live in Colorado and collect wage/merchant tokens and do a bit of side research on topics of interest to me; I have not put any serious effort into collecting specifically Colorado tokens as yet, however.
Personally I would be surprised if you ever found Ludlow tokens or scrip for sale, you'd probably be lucky to find photos of it or an exhibit of it in a local museum. Unlike West Virginia coal mine tokens which were used through the mid-20th c. and are relatively plentiful for collectors today, Colorado scrip went out of style in the early 20th c. for reasons the article Frenchlover links pretty well explains and is much less commonly available, though "common" pieces are affordable simply because few people bother to collect tokens.
Ludlow and the Coalfield War were important moments in Colorado history, and items attached to them would attract considerable interest from collectors. While I speculate on this, I cannot imagine CF&I kept any Ludlow scrip after what happened, and the miners themselves took a generally destructive approach to mine-related things at that time. Any tokens that survived would, logically, probably be family heirlooms of those miners who kept one as a keepsake - and probably not many did. If they exist, I would guess they exist in museums or family safes, or if on the market, up for auction for thousands of US$.
Here is an auction for a Colorado territorial banknote from Colorado Springs, amazing and beautiful, with a price realized that speaks for itself. I realize that's not a direct comparison to mine scrip, but keep in mind the history connection I mentioned above.
Have you seen anything mentioning that examples of these tokens still exist? It is a well documented fact that scrip was in use at CF&I camps, but it may also be the case that none has survived. Personally I would be highly enthused and impressed to see a photo of such tokens. But if you find anything like that for sale, there's more than one, and it costs less than a sports car, let me know. It's always possible that a hoard of them survived uncirculated in a crate in the back of a warehouse somewhere and they're on the market for less than I would imagine and I just haven't seen one.
A final note on scrip in general - scrip, wage tokens, chits, etc, were used in various forms around the world and in various capacities. Less exploitative (in theory) usage was often made by militaries, who would pay soldiers in scrip in the field, allowing them to buy necessities without the army carrying around a bunch of real money to be potentially looted or fought over, as well as exercising control by making illicit use of the money more difficult. Private employers sometimes did the same, but when it's a for-profit business rather than a state military, it's easy to guess that many if not most chose to take with both hands, paying their employees with scrip that could only be spent in the employer's stores and controlling/inflating prices, along with making them live in housing owned by the employer as well. Since workers were not paid in real money, they couldn't even save up to leave camp and go somewhere else, the scrip was worthless elsewhere. If you're thinking this sounds disturbingly close to slavery, that's what the miners thought too, and it's why workers now get paid in real money by law.
Also, thank you for bringing my wonderful state's history to attention!
