Any thoughts about what these are?

mustanggt

I though they might be trial strikes. They appear to be on aluminum.

AUandAG

Something you might see on top of a stack of chips at the poker table?

bob

jesbroken

I think they are neat looking, regardless.
Jim

ricko

No idea what they are, but sure like that ship.....Let me know if you want to part with it. Cheers, RickO

JBK

Die trials? Original or modern....

mustanggt

It would probably help to have a size reference

291fifth

They appear to be die trials, probably from the late 1930's of 1940's.

"Protection" may relate to the isolationist movement of the immediate pre-WWII period. I have never seen a medal with that design.

The "Day of Forty Nine" refers to the centennial of the California Gold Rush. So-Called Dollar collectors can probably confirm if the die was used on the SCD for that event.

The ship appears to be a crude rendering of an early WWII battleship.

mustanggt

Thanks, great info

Hydrant

Very cool. Where did you find them?

abcde12345

I see, "Hi CO" on the obverse of one and the ship looks like it has a stylized initial too.

mustanggt

A local coin shop bought them from a walk in Thursday and I took them off his hands Friday. There were 8 of them.

mustanggt

I did not see the lettering

ms70

"MDISE" ?

Abbreviation for merchandise?

Raybo

I'm with the cool kids.
COOL!

Zoins

I love them! They look like die trials to me.

Awesome pick up

Weiss

From our own @WillieBoyd2

291fifth

Another comment on the Battleship piece:

The die would not date any earlier than the early 1930's. US battleships originally had cage masts which were replaced on many of the ships starting in the early 1930's. The masts shown on the die trial are of the later type.

tokenpro

They are die trials from a well known die sinker. The signature is not Mdise but rather Moise with the end of the signature being K Co. which is one of the variations of the Moise - Klinkner Co. signature used on many Western, Mexican and Central American tokens. The company was one of the important San Francisco medalists that produced most of the So-Called Dollars and other significant exonumia for the 1894 California Mid-Winter Expo and numerous other large and small expos. They also were a major producer of trade tokens all up and down the West Coast.

I've seen similar trials but I'm not sure if the are company produced or privately produced from acquired dies. There was some mixing of dies due to mergers and buy outs among the S.F. mfgrs. such as Strahle, Patrick, etc. and some from each have entered the private market over the years.

WillieBoyd2

Is it possible that someone is trying to copy the medals in aluminum?

mustanggt

Thanks Weiss for the photos and to Tokenpro for the great info

mustanggt

Here are the rest of the group:

mustanggt

Not sure what that is on the ship strike