Solution: The token was at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. Most clues are about stars, planets, the moon, galaxies, which are all things observed at a planetarium.
Left border: (circles are all nicknames for planets)
Small blue dot = nickname for Earth
Bull’s Eye planet = nickname for Uranus
Big Blue planet = nickname for Neptune
Red planet = nickname for Mars
Cryptograms: (all are galaxies, using the alphabet GALXIESBCDFHJKMNOPQRTUVWZY)
GKXPMJIXG = Andromeda
MPCMK = Orion
JCHFY VGY = Milky Way
Right border: (references the stargazing and imagining what's out there)
Dotsie font = A SEA OF STARS AND LUCID DREAMS (from poetry by Suzy Kassem)
Lunar alphabet = I AM A SKY WATCHER (quote by Steven Magee, author)
Image: Google Earth view of the Adler Planetarium in Chicago
The spiral galaxy (lower right) is a sculpture at the Planetarium
The fish are from a mosaic in the underpass of Lake Shore Drive, and the entrance to the museums campus if walking
The skyline of Chicago from the planetarium is sideways along the left border
Numbers in the center are all nicknames of planets: (Polybius cipher with the keyword: PLANET)
3133131421 = GIANT planet = nickname for Jupiter
433314311524 = RINGED planet = nickname for Saturn
4452332521 = SWIFT planet = nickname for Mercury
35414314331431 & 15511514331431 44211343 = MORNING & EVENING STAR = nickname for Venus
Top border: A list of all the full moons in a year:
... warm days of summer, she grew strawberries with pink flowers. During the harvest, she sat by the lake to watch the wildlife. A wary buck came down to sip at the water’s edge as a beaver glided silently by with a stick in his mouth. A fat lazy sturgeon wove idly through the grass, disappearing under a rock. On a cold winter morning she stepped out into the snow to see the tracks of a hunter – a wolf stalking its prey by moonlight. A true bookworm, she curled up by the fire to read in the evening. The sun grew higher in the sky as spring arrived ...
Bottom border: Directions to the exact spot of the token:
1. Walking
hand in hand, they were of one mind, with one goal. Find that treasure. (they walked
in solidarity & the name of the road leading to the planetarium is Solidarity Drive)
2. Passing an old fishing shed (the Shedd Aquarium), they felt they were close, so
3. they soldiered on (You pass Soldier Field).
4. The old man (Copernicus, facing you in front of the planetarium)
5. said, “Pass to my right”, (He is facing you, so you take the path to the LEFT of the planetarium)
6. They followed that path, counting, one, two, three... all the way to nine where they found the neatly stacked trio, just as he described. (lining the Skyline Walk that circles the planetarium, are piles of rocks (shown as dots on the puzzle image). The token was hidden in the 9th pile of three rocks)
7. But they found nothing there. Disappointed, they turned to go, when something (the token) glinted in the light of the setting sun.
8. Getting down on one knee, she peered into the narrow space (where the token was hidden).
9. “Oh my God” she said, “It’s full of stars!” (a quote from the film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and another hint to the planetarium, which is full of stars)