Masonic Penny Catalog

Zoins

Is there a catalog of Masonic pennies?

I'd love to know which are the ones from the earliest chapters.

I've noticed that @coinsarefun has posted a number and Steve Hayden often sells these.

coinsarefun

I’m fairly certain there is but, I’ve only been able to find a very limited amount of info online.
The best person to ask is probably @tokenpro

Sonorandesertrat

There is an old Quarterman Publications book by E. A. King, "Masonic Chapter Pennies". Quarterman specialized in reprinting old books and compilations of journal articles, so the contents could be pre-WWII.

Boosibri

Boosibri

Here is a die from the Stone Mountain chapter

Sonorandesertrat

Virgil Brand had a large collection of masonic pennies, auctioned off by Bowers & Merena in 1985. There is also an article on collecting masonic pennies in the February 2017 issue of The Numismatist.

Zoins

@Boosibri said:
Here is a die from the Stone Mountain chapter

Nice die!

Do you know if this was made by Mitchell Campbell Lilley / M.C. Lilley & Co.?

https://snaccooperative.org/ark:/99166/w67h7h58

M.C. Lilley & Co.

Mitchell C. Lilley (1819-1882) was born in Columbus, Ohio. He was a bookbinder and publisher and published Masonic and Odd Fellows books. In 1865, he founded M. C. Lilley & Co, which produced regalia and swords. The company expanded into a complete line of military and fraternal swords, uniforms, accessories, and equipment. Following several mergers, the company changed its name to the Lilley Co. and The Lilley-Ames Co. In 1951, the company was sold to the C.E. Ward Company of New London, Ohio. It operated until 1953.

Or perhaps from Clyde Eugene Ward / C.E. Ward Co?

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/93229706/james-alexander-matthews

The CE Ward Company was founded in 1905 by Clyde Eugene Ward, a cousin to my great grandfather. The company can be traced to the Ward-Stilson Company, formed in the late 1880's in New London OH, to make products for the Junior Order of United American Mechanics lodge.

UPDATE:

There is a Stone Mountain die attributed to a "Ames, Henderson Ames, MC Lilley archive from the 1890s-1900s mergers."

Boosibri

Yes< from Henderson Ames / Lilley and came from the Lilley archives. I have maybe 20 of them. Henderson Ames was located in my hometown of Kalamazoo. Most of what I have is from Southwest Michigan though still missing Kalamazoo, my holy grail of Masonic dies.

tokenpro

King is still the mostly widely used work but it is dated and incomplete. The King catalog "Masonic Chapter Pennies" was originally published in 1926 intended for use by the Masons on a lodge level. The catalog is basically an inventory of the collections and individual pennies donated to the National Scottish Rite House Of The Museum Of The Temple in Washington D.C. After its publication many hundreds of pennies were donated by the local Chapters but the catalog was never updated in print. More recently several of the major collectors of the series donated time to organize and catalog the collection over a period of years with the intent to publish a new catalog of the National Collection and additional items from their own collections. The passing of several of the involved collectors (especially Captain Lee Woodbury USN) slowed and changed the project but a new work was pubished in 2015 I'm not sure how to order or if it is print on demand but if someone is interested I can contact one of the authors. I do not have a copy so I can't review the work - in any case, here is a cover image and a Worthpoint link with a little more detail: https://worthpoint.com/worthopedia/masonic-chapter-penny-reference-10-1813415647

Zoins

@Boosibri said:
Yes< from Henderson Ames / Linley and came from the Linley archives. I have maybe 20 of them. Henderson Ames was located in my hometown of Kalamazoo. Most of what I have is from Southwest Michigan though still missing Kalamazoo, my holy grail of Masonic dies.

Nice. I picked up a number of dies as well. I stayed away from the text-only chapter dies, but wish I picked up a couple, namely the Nome, Alaska one.

Zoins

@tokenpro said:
King is still the mostly widely used work but it is dated and incomplete. The King catalog "Masonic Chapter Pennies" was originally published in 1926 intended for use by the Masons on a lodge level. The catalog is basically an inventory of the collections and individual pennies donated to the National Scottish Rite House Of The Museum Of The Temple in Washington D.C. After its publication many hundreds of pennies were donated by the local Chapters but the catalog was never updated in print. More recently several of the major collectors of the series donated time to organize and catalog the collection over a period of years with the intent to publish a new catalog of the National Collection and additional items from their own collections. The passing of several of the involved collectors (especially Captain Lee Woodbury USN) slowed and changed the project but a new work was pubished in 2015 I'm not sure how to order or if it is print on demand but if someone is interested I can contact one of the authors. I do not have a copy so I can't review the work - in any case, here is a cover image and a Worthpoint link with a little more detail: https://worthpoint.com/worthopedia/masonic-chapter-penny-reference-10-1813415647

Great info on that book by William (Bill) J. Waken, Richard Watley and Steve Waken. There's a GoodReads page here:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35107420-masonic-chapter-pennies-of-the-united-states-canada

Aegis3

I believe Hathitrust has the King reference online.

coinsarefun

Not sure if I should add this also. Some are scd’s but, I’m too tired to look
each one up. Other are penny’’s, some are medals.
Several are quite old and rare.....dating to the revolutionary times.
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I posted quite a few a while back doing a short explanation on some
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habaraca

habaraca

savoyspecial

If anyone would like to order the Waken & Watley book shown by tokenpro above, please send me a private message. I have the contact information for one of the authors and I believe he has copies available.

PipestonePete

Here's my die from Pipestone, Minnesota.

chattchoo

We now have almost 18,000 us Masonic Pennies listed on tokencatalog.com. Under All listing in upper lift, choose Masonic Tokens.
ANA has had 2 eSeminars this year on Masonic Pennies.

coinsarefun

Awesome! Tokencatalog.com is amazing!

ZoidMeister

@chattchoo said:
We now have almost 18,000 us Masonic Pennies listed on tokencatalog.com. Under All listing in upper lift, choose Masonic Tokens.
ANA has had 2 eSeminars this year on Masonic Pennies.

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Tokencatalog.com is my go to resource lately. I have been adding as many Masonic Pennies as time permits, and many of Ron Landis and Daniel Carr's pieces as well. Searches on their names will pull up the entries to date.

I highly recommend Tokencatalog.com and contribute to its upkeep as possible. It is an invaluable resource for uncataloged pieces and they give you the option of referencing known catalog attributions as well.

Z

chattchoo

I have two eSeminars on youtube on Masonic Pennies.
https://youtu.be/xMXdkWpB5jQ
https://youtu.be/Qt3BicktePE
Just copy into you browser and search. There is a ton of new information.

Thanks for you help on adding to tokencatalog.com
I have added about 200 in the last week. Mainly Canada.

We are starting a project on adding Dies. There are about 4,000 that need to be added.

jesbroken

Wright's book on Masonic Chapter Pennies is available online pdf.
Jim

http://tokencatalog.com/reference pages/Masonic Chapter Pennies - Wright.pdf

chattchoo

I wrote a series of Articles on Masonic Pennies for Talk'n Token. I can send eMails of them.

Stacks Bowers is scheduled to auction the Storck Collection of Masonic Pennies in March 2022. This is probably the 3rd largest collection. It has an extensive Canadian Section. The Auction will be internet only. Storck was a Pearl Harbor Survivor and major coin collector and dealer.

ZoidMeister

I’ve been quiet for a while on my Masonic Penny acquisitions but have been picking them up when something interesting crosses my radar. I haven’t made the time to capture images of any of the recent arrivals and post them until this arrived . . . . . .

Well, this behemoth just came in and couldn’t I delay on posting it.
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My Masonic Penny “Moose”

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I’m really not sure how to classify this piece. Is it to be considered a Masonic Penny? Is it an encased coin? Is it folk art? A hockey puck? A paperweight? Perhaps, a weapon . . . . . ?

This monster measures a full 63mm in diameter and weighs in at 355 grams of solid copper. The obverse displays an encased 1940-D Lincoln Cent and is hand engraved with familiar masonic images and the names of 14 individuals.

The reverse displays a second encased Lincoln wheat cent and is blank, as is its edge. Given this copper disk is a full 10mm in diameter, it took two cents to give the effect the maker intended.

The date of the cent on the reverse is a mystery, but imagine how cool it would be if the cent on the reverse bore the initials “V.D.B.” . . . . . . ?

Other mysteries are the date of its manufacture and under which Chapter this massive disk was made. One can assume it’s creation does not pre-date 1940, but does the selection of a cent from that year bear any clues as to when it might have actually been made?

Has anyone seen anything similar or its equal?

So how would you classify this piece? Is this a “Masonic Penny”? Is it an encased cent? Is it folk art? A paperweight?
What say you . . . . . ?

Anyway, on to the photos.

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@chattchoo said:

Thanks for you help on adding to tokencatalog.com
I have added about 200 in the last week. Mainly Canada.

We are starting a project on adding Dies. There are about 4,000 that need to be added.

ZoidMeister

Here are a couple other recent arrivals. I thought I would grab photos of these as well.

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Namvet69

Z, on that monster disc, if the 1940-D cent is flush with the obv, would that make the rev wheat cent a second coin? Peace Roy

coinsarefun

That is incredible @ZoidMeister. I thought I only came up with weird stuff…..lol
I love it.

ZoidMeister

@Namvet69 said:
Z, on that monster disc, if the 1940-D cent is flush with the obv, would that make the rev wheat cent a second coin? Peace Roy

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Yes, both Lincoln cents are flush with their respective surfaces. It begs the question: what, if anything, is entombed between them. A virtual time capsule?

Z

EXOJUNKIE

There are a lot of creative Masonic pieces out there, many one-of-a-kind.

coinsarefun

This one is fairly high grade.....sweet

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@ZoidMeister said:
Here are a couple other recent arrivals. I thought I would grab photos of these as well.

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haw68

@Boosibri said:
Yes< from Henderson Ames / Lilley and came from the Lilley archives. I have maybe 20 of them. Henderson Ames was located in my hometown of Kalamazoo. Most of what I have is from Southwest Michigan though still missing Kalamazoo, my holy grail of Masonic dies.

BOOSIBRI - Your Stone Mountain die was made by the M C Lilley & Company in 1918. Starting in 1903 Lilley put a serial number on the dies they made. They started with serial number 1000 and with each die they made the serial number increased sequentially. Your Stone Mountain die is serial number 3374. Most of Lilley's dies made after 1903 have a serial number stamped on the side or top of the die, but I don't see it in your pictures of this die. I own what remains of Lilley's company archives and have their inventory record books for Masonic Penny dies.

The M C Lilley & Company changed their name to The Lilley Company in January, 1922, then in December, 1932 they became The Lilley-Ames Company when they merged with Henderson-Ames. Most of Henderson-Ames assets were moved from Kalamazoo, MI to Lilley in Columbus, OH in early 1933. In 1951 Lilley's assets were acquired by and moved to The C E Ward Company of New London, OH. Ward's assets eventually ended up in the hands of Fraternal Supplies, Inc which remained in business until 2012. Fraternal Supplies was the successor company to over 20 other companies which cumulatively were in business for over 1,000 years. My best estimate is there were nearly 10,000 stamping dies in the Fraternal Supplies collection with over 3,500 of them for Masonic Pennies.

I have Henderson-Ames' original die for the Kalamazoo chapter here.

I own the company archives and can help with the provenance for Masonic Penny dies (and other artifacts) from Lilley, Henderson-Ames, C. E. Ward, Thomas Parry's Sons, E. A. Armstrong Mfg Company and many other companies.

haw68

@PipestonePete said:
Here's my die from Pipestone, Minnesota.

Your Pipestone, MN die was made by The M C Lilley & Company in 1921 and is stamping die serial number 4017. See my post above for more details.

haw68

@Zoins said:
Is there a catalog of Masonic pennies?

I'd love to know which are the ones from the earliest chapters.

I've noticed that @coinsarefun has posted a number and Steve Hayden often sells these.

The earliest Royal Arch Mason Chapters and the earliest R.A.M. Pennies are two very different things. The earliest chapters were around long before Masonic Pennies started to be used. The earliest Masonic Penny probably dates to c1880, but it wasn't until later in the 1800's that the use of Masonic Pennies became more common. I would suggest very few of the known Masonic Pennies are from prior to 1895. Note, the 'Chartered Date' or other dates stamped into Pennies generally have nothing to do with a manufacturing date or the age of a Penny.

There really hasn't been a good way to date most Masonic Pennies. The company records from the manufacturers of Masonic Pennies and their associated collection of dies is a great resource of information on the provenance of the Pennies. In addition to the 3,500+ dies from the Fraternal Supplies archives mentioned above I recently acquired and am in the process of documenting another 1,000+ Masonic Penny dies from Thomas Parry's Sons Company (Philadelphia & Camden, NJ). My plan is to share some of this information with TokenCatalog so collectors know what company manufactured a Penny and approximately when it was made.

PipestonePete

@haw68 said:

@PipestonePete said:

Your Pipestone, MN die was made by The M C Lilley & Company in 1921 and is stamping die serial number 4017. See my post above for more details.

Wow, thank you so much for finding that out and letting me know. I really appreciate it!

tokenpro

Many of the Masonic chapters across the U.S. ordered pennies on an as needed basis as they added members over the years resulting in a multitude of both obverse and reverse die varieties. Obverse dies were lost, recycled or misplaced as it might be years between orders and even if found the previously matched stock reverse die often proved just as elusive. Add in the fact that many chapters also issued shekels and used different metals for "regular issue" pennies (to say nothing of multi-metal "presentation" sets) and you end up with thousands of major die & metal varieties and combinations from 1000+ chapters.

Masonic pennies in particular and other Masonic exonumia in general are very under collected areas even with the attendant unfamiliarity of many with the fraternal organization(s). -- you don't have to be one to collect 'em.

BuffaloIronTail

Pete

haw68

The original topic of this conversation was 'Masonic Penny Catalogs'. . . One overlooked resource of information and one not mentioned in previous posts are trade catalogs from the companies that manufactured or distributed Masonic pennies. Below should be an example of a Henderson-Ames Royal Arch Mason catalog from c1930. The trade catalogs help identify which company manufactured (or sold) certain designs and when they were offered. Learning the provenance about any collectible and being able to tell a better, more accurate story about it adds to the interest of the piece.

I have information on many manufacturers (including trade catalogs) and will answer questions or share information if I can.

ZoidMeister

Your knowledge and contributions are greatly appreciated.

My latest acquisition.

The central images on the obverse of this one seem to be quite unique. They remind me of the Miners Tools depicted on So-Called Dollars from the Parrot and Anaconda Mines.

The personalization on the reverse is subtle and artfully executed.

This example appears to have been created in the 114th year of the Chapter's existence.

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@haw68 said:
The original topic of this conversation was 'Masonic Penny Catalogs'. . . One overlooked resource of information and one not mentioned in previous posts are trade catalogs from the companies that manufactured or distributed Masonic pennies. Below should be an example of a Henderson-Ames Royal Arch Mason catalog from c1930. The trade catalogs help identify which company manufactured (or sold) certain designs and when they were offered. Learning the provenance about any collectible and being able to tell a better, more accurate story about it adds to the interest of the piece.

I have information on many manufacturers (including trade catalogs) and will answer questions or share information if I can.

ZoidMeister

My most prodigious example to date.

It measures 63.5mm and weighs in at over 10 oz.

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shorecoll

I had wondered if people still collected these, I guess this thread answered that. LOl.

shorecoll

I have a copy of King and the original Numismatists it was reprinted from.

ZoidMeister

@shorecoll said:
I had wondered if people still collected these, I guess this thread answered that. LOl.

I have a bunch that I need to photograph and post. Not sure what I have already posted in this thread. I need to check.

Z

haw68

ZoidMeister - Nice looking Masonic Penny! Attached is an image of the die from The Henderson-Ames Company (Kalamazoo, MI) used to manufacture your Masonic Penny pictured above. This die was manufactured sometime between 1910-1932. Henderson-Ames merged with The Lilley Company in December, 1932 to create The Lilley-Ames Company. Henderson's assets (including this die) were moved to Lilley's factory in Columbus, OH in 1933.

'H J A' are the initials of the person that received this penny when they became a Royal Arch Mason in 1937. These initials and the date were hand-engraved in your Penny after it was given to HJA. Your Penny could have been manufactured by Henderson-Ames (if made before 1933) or by Lilley-Ames if made in 1933 or later.

In addition to different sizes and materials, Masonic Pennies were offered in different designs. Most manufacturers offered stock designs and semi-custom designs and some manufacturers offered custom designs on both the observe and reverse. The 'stock design' is a generic design that may say ONE PENNY on one side and have some sort of Masonic symbol on the other. There is nothing stamped in the stock design to identify what chapter or person used it and this was the cheapest option for a chapter to purchase. A 'semi custom' design is what you see on most Masonic Pennies for sale. The observe will generally have the city, state, chapter name, and chapter number on it and the reverse is a standard design. The letters & numbers on a 'semi custom' die were stamped into the face of the die, not engraved.

Your penny from Burlington, VT is an example of a custom design where both the observe and reverse dies were custom made for this chapter. The pick, shovel, and pry bar were hand-engraved into the steel die for the observe as was the keystone on the reverse. Pennies with a custom design were much more expensive and not commonly used.

haw68

@shorecoll said:
I have a copy of King and the original Numismatists it was reprinted from.

King's book was never in The Numismatist. In 1926 E. A. King published Masonic Chapter Pennies, The Albert M. Hanauer Collection. This book was updated in 1930 then in 1972 Quarterman Publications 'reprinted' this book. NOTE. . . the Quarterman reprint is missing over 70 pages of valuable information they apparently forgot to reprint.

Dr. B. P. Wright's information on Masonic Pennies was in The Numismatist between 1901-1904.

haw68

This is an example of a die used to make what I refer to as a 'stock penny' design for R. A. M. chapter pennies.

ZoidMeister

@haw68

Here are a few more Masonic Pennies that I have photos of. My plan is to get them listed in Tokencatalog.com if they aren't already there.

I have a bunch more to image.

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ZoidMeister

It looks like I am primarily drawn to the fully custom designs.

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haw68

These are two examples of custom designs manufactured by Thomas Parry's Sons Company (Camden, NJ). My estimate is only 2-3% of U.S. chapter pennies are custom designs. Canadian and other foreign chapters were far more likely to have custom designs.

shorecoll

OK, thanks...I have those too. Thought King was in there. I also have full sets of Scott's and Raymond's CCJ's but haven't checked those for Masonic material

Zoins

@ZoidMeister said:
It looks like I am primarily drawn to the fully custom designs.

The hand engraved ones are nice.

The early ones were hand engraved on Large Cents.

At what time did they switch to having their own dies?

Zoins

@haw68 said:
These are two examples of custom designs manufactured by Thomas Parry's Sons Company (Camden, NJ). My estimate is only 2-3% of U.S. chapter pennies are custom designs. Canadian and other foreign chapters were far more likely to have custom designs.

Those are both really nice designs. Congrats!