"Over the Garden Wall"
lordmarcovan
Posts: 43,673 ✭✭✭✭✭
"Over the Garden Wall"
Whimsical love token engraving on 1876 Seated Liberty dime
Larger obverse picture
Larger reverse picture
Obverse: original Seated Liberty design, unaltered except for some wear-related scratches. Reverse: "OVER THE GARDEN WALL / " R (G?) E. C.", (fox? cat?) leaping over stone wall in pursuit of another animal whose tail can be seen, dog chasing bird below. Ex- "acsb-rich", eBay, 11/25/2015.
This is a great pictorial love token, though I don't know what the "Over the Garden Wall" reference is about. The engraver, despite a folksy style, had some obvious skill. At first I thought he or she had blundered the initials, but looking more closely, it seems they're deliberately done in a "furry" font, perhaps in some further reference to animals. The seller described this vignette as a cat chasing a mouse over the wall. Cat that may be, but it also might be a fox, and the creature it is chasing (whose tail can be seen on the opposite side of the wall) certainly isn't a mouse.
Though I already had duplicate Seated dime love tokens in my type set, I couldn't resist adding this one, too. (For what it's worth, we have three dogs, eight cats, and two guinea pigs at home, so we do like our critters, and my wife and daughter, who are normally not much impressed by coins, should appreciate this piece.)
Engraved/Counterstamped/Oddball Type Set
Whimsical love token engraving on 1876 Seated Liberty dime
Larger obverse picture
Larger reverse picture
Obverse: original Seated Liberty design, unaltered except for some wear-related scratches. Reverse: "OVER THE GARDEN WALL / " R (G?) E. C.", (fox? cat?) leaping over stone wall in pursuit of another animal whose tail can be seen, dog chasing bird below. Ex- "acsb-rich", eBay, 11/25/2015.
This is a great pictorial love token, though I don't know what the "Over the Garden Wall" reference is about. The engraver, despite a folksy style, had some obvious skill. At first I thought he or she had blundered the initials, but looking more closely, it seems they're deliberately done in a "furry" font, perhaps in some further reference to animals. The seller described this vignette as a cat chasing a mouse over the wall. Cat that may be, but it also might be a fox, and the creature it is chasing (whose tail can be seen on the opposite side of the wall) certainly isn't a mouse.
Though I already had duplicate Seated dime love tokens in my type set, I couldn't resist adding this one, too. (For what it's worth, we have three dogs, eight cats, and two guinea pigs at home, so we do like our critters, and my wife and daughter, who are normally not much impressed by coins, should appreciate this piece.)
Engraved/Counterstamped/Oddball Type Set
0
Comments
Hmm. maybe the R stands for "Renard."
My thoughts exactly
Have a Great Day!
Louis
Too messed up to be a good coin so good it was used for something.
I'm not so sure the obverse didn't get messed up after the engraving was done, actually. It happened to love tokens, as they got worn as jewelry and carried on watch chains and such. This is why stuff like marks and polishing and the odd scratch or two are forgiven on love tokens far more than on traditional, mainstream collector coins. It's par for the course, similar to how cleaning is normal for ancient coins since 99.9% of those on the market spent centuries in the ground at one time.
This host coin could've been XF-AU or even Mint State before the engraving, for all we know.
My guess would be a fox chasing a squirrel.
Have a Great Day!
Louis
I can buy that.
The theory, I mean. I already bought the coin.
Another idea: foxes raiding the henhouse, chased away by the small terrier like dog, with a terrified surviving hen to add interest.
Possibly the dog/fox went over the wall to chase a rabbit.
The Mysterious Egyptian Magic Coin
Coins in Movies
Coins on Television
- Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106-43 BC
PS- neat old postcard(?), DUIGUY.