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**A NEW UPDATE ***Wanamaker t. Father of the modern way of shopping. See last post

coinsarefuncoinsarefun Posts: 21,739 ✭✭✭✭✭
edited October 28, 2021 5:46AM in U.S. Coin Forum

While this Brass example of Philadelphia's Wanamaker's Merchant token department store is not the rarest
of all his tokens, its still a very nice brass example that is very close to proof like looking with nice deep red
toning and still very bright. The engraver is Peter L. Krider. He produced large amounts of solid silver flatware and hollowware, often sold through retailers such as Bailey and Company, J. E. Caldwell, and firms outside Philadelphia. He also created society and exposition medals, including award medals for the Centennial Exposition in 1876.
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The American Flag on obverse is very reminiscent of the California Tokens and Counters I am collecting now so this naturally drew me to this design. The reverse is a wonderful depiction of his store.
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In 1861 Wanamaker resigned from the YMCA and, at age 22, opened his first store, with his brother-in-law, Nathan Brown, as his partner. Oak Hall, as it was known, opened for business just days before the outbreak of the Civil War. On its first day, it sold $24.67 in men’s and boys’ clothing. By the end of its first decade, it was earning $2,085,528 annually.
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Wanamker is the father of modern day department store....He focused on four core principles: a single price for all customers, a full guarantee on every item purchased, cash payment, and cash returned. He originated the price tag — until then, prices were settled by haggling, Informally polled his customers at the doors as they left to ascertain their satisfaction; took out the first half- and full-page newspaper advertisements; employed the world’s first full-time ad copywriter; opened the first restaurant inside a general store; installed the first electrical lighting in a store; regularly sent buyers overseas to study foreign markets; and invented the “white sale.”


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After opening a store in New York City in 1896 and European Houses of Wanamaker in London and Paris, Wanamaker built a 12-story granite palace in 1910 on the site of the Grand Depot. It took up an entire block at 13th and Market, where it still stands, and was the largest retail store in the world. The new building, dedicated by president William Howard Taft, housed the Wanamaker Grand Court Pipe Organ (played daily since June 22, 1911) and the 2,500-pound bronze “Wanamaker Eagle” (from the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair), where generations of Philadelphians have rendezvoused. In 1978, the Wanamaker chain was sold to Carter Hawley Hale, Inc., which in turn sold it to Woodward & Lothrop in 1986. When W&L went bankrupt in the early 1990s, the stores were sold to May Department Stores Company. In August 2006, the Philadelphia store, then a Lord & Taylor, became a Macy’s and apparently to this day is open.
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In 1911 Wanamaker expanded the Philadelphia store, featuring a 150-foot-high Grand Court with the world's second largest organ and a great eagle from the 1903 St. Louis World's Fair, which became a popular landmark and meeting spot.

CoinsAreFun Pictorials Album
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More CoinsAreFun Pictorials NGC

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