They are round, metal and have designs on them.

sellitstore

Posted a photo in the Friday Random Picture Thread. Two people guessed but neither correctly identified these. What are they?

291fifth

Bad photos?

sellitstore

Yes, shot with a hand held camera through a glass display case. No other choice if I wanted any images.

Consider that a hint.

Mdcoincollector2003

Casino chips and casino chip molds?

Hemispherical

Some kind of tokens with plaster molds?

sellitstore

Nothing to do with casino chips or tokens, but yes, I believe that the molds were used to make the metal discs.

ricko

I give up.... Please tag me when you provide the answer.... Cheers, RickO

Hemispherical

Birds, snake, female bust, male bust, shield, and some “blobs” (cannot make it out). No particular order but all I can figure out.

Since it is in a dislay case it has some importance to someone. Someone’s showing their engraving examples.

ms70

I could only guess they are for either rubber stamps or wax seals.

sellitstore

Another reasonable guess, but, no, these are not for rubber stamps or wax seals.

How about another hint:

I took these pictures while hiking the Appalachian Trail in Massachusetts a few years ago, and did not have to go more than 100 yards off the trail to take these pictures.

kaz

would they have been used for embossing paper, maybe by a fancy stationery company?

Hemispherical

Trail markers? Or one of those hide and find competitons?

Which oddly reminds me of elementary school buses. Instead of numbers/letters they put some type of figure like a cat or dog and tell the kids your bus is the cat, etc.

Too bad buses have them for middle and high school, too. You would think the kids would know how to read numbers/letters by then. Sorry last part OT.

Kkathyl

Practice plates from engraver

Hull’s shop aka mint practice plates coinage material.

sellitstore

@kaz said:
would they have been used for embossing paper, maybe by a fancy stationery company?

Not quite, but you are closer than anyone yet.

topstuf

Legal tender for Appalachian hillbillies?

sellitstore

What is in Dalton, MA besides the Appalachian Trail?

Hemispherical

Crane Museum and Center for Paper Arts

http://facebook.com/cranemuseum

See where the buck really starts.

Learn how it's made

Make your own paper

Shop for Crane stationery

A unique experience

sellitstore

Yes, so @kaz is one smart dog for guessing that they are paper money related, but they are not for embossing.

They are used in the manufacture of currency, but what are they?

Hemispherical

@sellitstore said:
What is in Dalton, MA besides the Appalachian Trail?

Learned something new. Supplier of the paper for the federal reserve.

sellitstore

The only supplier for paper for all US currency even before there was a Federal Reserve (1913).

Crane & Co. has been making currency paper here on the Housatonic River since 1806 and has been the sole supplier to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing since 1879.

The pictured dies are used to create watermarks when the paper is manufactured. This security invention is at least several hundred years old and was widely used in U.S. Colonial currency during the 1700s. All of our notes today (except the $1) still use watermarks as a security feature.

Paper is made by depositing a slurry containing fibers and a binder on to a screen, which allows the water to drain out of the slurry and the paper to form. If an image is raised slightly above the screen, this creates thinner areas in the paper where less material solidifies and the image will appear as lighter areas in the finished sheet of paper. The paper is actually thinner here and contains less fibers and binders, creating a watermark manufactured into the paper.

The molds shown here are undoubtedly used as part of the transfer process. I'm not sure if they were created from the metal dies or used the other way around.

Although I know that the watermarks created from these used a screen with these images raised slightly and embedded in the proper positions on the sheet, I'm not sure if these actual metal dies were used as part of the screen. It could be that the engraver created these in metal, transferred to plaster or another material and then made another image, in another material, to use on the screen.

So, the answer is "Watermarks" They were used in manufacture of watermarked paper to create the watermark.

These are in the Crane & Co. museum in Dalton, MA. Small but well worth the visit and price of admission (free). Lots to learn here.

https://facebook.com/CraneMuseum/

Hemispherical

Thanks @sellitstore. Very interesting information on the making of watermarks. Definitely learned a lot!

AUandAG

seals for the top of whiskey (booze) bottles?

bob