1876 Centennial Token in Rubber Certified by PCGS

Zoins

I'm a big fan of medals and tokens in unusual compositions and have been looking at a raw rubber medal from Florence Manufacturing on eBay for some time.

Now suddenly, the raw specimen is joined by two slabbed ones, one from PCGS and one from ATS!

I do like the 1776-1876 USA Centennial design on this medal.

ricko

@Zoins.... I like that one.... Interesting they used a different font for the two dates.... Cheers, RickO

CaptHenway

@ricko said:
@Zoins.... I like that one.... Interesting they used a different font for the two dates.... Cheers, RickO

Perhaps the engraver was deliberately trying to duplicate the different fonts you might have seen on a coin of 1776 and a then current coin of 1876.

jmlanzaf

I just sold a raw one on eBay. Mine was black, not brown.

ricko

@CaptHenway ... Thanks, that point did occur to me, but did not do research for confirmation. Makes good sense though. Cheers, RickO

CuKevin

Interesting piece. Thanks for sharing.

tokenpro

Schenkman lists the piece in black and brown but I've seen one in a brick red (not maroon) in an advanced Centennial collection.

Zoins

@jmlanzaf said:
I just sold a raw one on eBay. Mine was black, not brown.

I hope my thread helped that sell for you

Zoins

@tokenpro said:
Schenkman lists the piece in black and brown but I've seen one in a brick red (not maroon) in an advanced Centennial collection.

I've seen the brick red one too. Wonder how many colors these come in.

tokenpro

Early (pre-1880) hard rubber is limited to basically four colors: black, brown, maroon and brick red. There are some similar compositions that are lumped under hard rubber that come in a light brown, mustard yellow and green (think of the Union Coffee series that comes in a more brittle composition). There are a couple two color pieces that are layered, usually with black and red on obverse and reverse (most for the 1876 Centennial).

Sometime you will see an early classic style hard rubber piece that is black on one side and brown on the other. After some experimentation by Dave Schenkman and others this color combination was found to be fading from sun/environment exposure rather than two different colors.

Celluloid (which was partly developed as a replacement for ivory) is a totally different compound which is easily tinted during manufacture into a rainbow of colors.

Namvet69

Nice how the design used much of the exergue. And that USA is fantastic! Thanks for that. Peace Roy