1918 WW1 Soldier Cent (push-out)

dcarr

It appears that they were made by HH Tammen Company in Denver circa WW1. According to the ad, they came three ways: as a brooch; as a stick pin; or as cufflinks. I have never seen one. If anyone has seen one, please post here and/or send a PM.

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291fifth

I wonder if the PennyLady has one? I've never seen one or heard of them before.

MWallace

@PennyLady
If she doesn't have one I bet she'll find one.

SullivanNumismatics

That is a neat item, great design.

PerryHall

@dcarr---If you started making push-outs or pop-outs, I bet you'd sell them by the ton. They're really neat.

ricko

I have never seen one at shows when I lived in the PNW - or anywhere else. I would think they would turn up at large shows such as FUN. Cheers, RickO

Zoins

Great item and history! I love it's ties to WWI, Denver and Philadelphia.

Here's a great link with info on Harry Heye Tammen:

https://www.smpub.com/ubb/Forum12/HTML/000363.html

There's a lot of photos in the original article so please click through if you're interested.

Scott Martin wrote:

H.H. Tammen (1856-1924)

A maker of souvenirs in the west, based in Denver. They specialized in rodeo, National Park and western items. Harry Heye Tammen was born in Baltimore, Maryland on March 6, 1856, the son of a German immigrant pharmacist. He attended Knapps Academy in Baltimore, then worked in Philadelphia before moving to Denver in 1880. With his partner Charles A. Stuart he worked as a Denver bartender in 1880, and in 1881 they established the firm of H.H. Tammen & Co. (aka H.H. Tammen Curio Co.) in Denver, Colorado. The company focused on creating souvenir mineralogical curiosities of Colorado, but also sold photography (including William Henry Jackson), silver souvenir spoons, and the like. In 1895, Tammen became a co-editor of the Denver Post, and thus even more wealthy than he already had become. He was apparently behind the controversial decision of Buffalo Bill’s family, to bury him in Denver instead of his hometown of Cody, Wyoming. The H.H. Tammen Curio Co. was in business until 1953, and possibly as late as 1962.

The following is an excerpt Scott posted from the Mineralogical Record: Biographical Archive.

Tammen also manufactured a very popular line of "Colorado curiosities" and "mineral novelties" consisting of a variety of numbered and identified Colorado mineral and ore specimens cemented onto clocks, caskets, inkstands (one of which won an award at the 1881 Colorado State Fair), centerpieces, crosses, horseshoes and so on for ornamental purposes. He described these items as "perfect in taste, blending of colors, etc., and absolutely trustworthy as regards the cataloging, classification and specifications of the different minerals employed in the construction of each article." He also dealt in stereoscopic and other photos of the West (he was supplied by the famous Western photographer W.H. Jackson), photo albums, books on the West, silver souvenir spoons, a wide variety of humorous and scenic postcards (especially of mining areas), fossil fish, polished agates, botanical specimens, Pueblo Indian pottery, relics and taxidermy items from his stores in Denver.

dcarr

@Zoins said:
Great item and history! I love it's ties to WWI, Denver and Philadelphia.

Here's a great link with info on Harry Heye Tammen:

https://www.smpub.com/ubb/Forum12/HTML/000363.html

There's a lot of photos in the original article so please click through if you're interested.

Scott Martin wrote:

H.H. Tammen (1856-1924)

A maker of souvenirs in the west, based in Denver. They specialized in rodeo, National Park and western items. Harry Heye Tammen was born in Baltimore, Maryland on March 6, 1856, the son of a German immigrant pharmacist. He attended Knapps Academy in Baltimore, then worked in Philadelphia before moving to Denver in 1880. With his partner Charles A. Stuart he worked as a Denver bartender in 1880, and in 1881 they established the firm of H.H. Tammen & Co. (aka H.H. Tammen Curio Co.) in Denver, Colorado. The company focused on creating souvenir mineralogical curiosities of Colorado, but also sold photography (including William Henry Jackson), silver souvenir spoons, and the like. In 1895, Tammen became a co-editor of the Denver Post, and thus even more wealthy than he already had become. He was apparently behind the controversial decision of Buffalo Bill’s family, to bury him in Denver instead of his hometown of Cody, Wyoming. The H.H. Tammen Curio Co. was in business until 1953, and possibly as late as 1962.

The following is an excerpt Scott posted from the Mineralogical Record: Biographical Archive.

Tammen also manufactured a very popular line of "Colorado curiosities" and "mineral novelties" consisting of a variety of numbered and identified Colorado mineral and ore specimens cemented onto clocks, caskets, inkstands (one of which won an award at the 1881 Colorado State Fair), centerpieces, crosses, horseshoes and so on for ornamental purposes. He described these items as "perfect in taste, blending of colors, etc., and absolutely trustworthy as regards the cataloging, classification and specifications of the different minerals employed in the construction of each article." He also dealt in stereoscopic and other photos of the West (he was supplied by the famous Western photographer W.H. Jackson), photo albums, books on the West, silver souvenir spoons, a wide variety of humorous and scenic postcards (especially of mining areas), fossil fish, polished agates, botanical specimens, Pueblo Indian pottery, relics and taxidermy items from his stores in Denver.

About 1911 Buffalo Bill Cody borrowed money from Harry Tammen. Due to Cody’s bad investments in Arizona mining schemes, he was unable to repay Tammen. When Cody’s Wild West show came to Denver in 1913, Tammen foreclosed on the whole show and sold all of it at auction. That was the last of Cody's "Wild West Show". Cody then had no choice but to work in Tammen’s “Sells Floto” (dog & pony show) circus.

When Cody died in 1917, Tammen reportedly offered Cody’s widow $10,000 if she would have him buried in Denver.
Cody was buried on Lookout Mountain which was part of the Denver Mountain Parks system.

As an aside, I grew up on Lookout Mountain about a mile from the grave site.

Here is the two of them together, which is a rather telling photograph:

braddick

Now I want one!

dcarr

I was talking to a dealer from California at the recent Long Beach show about push-out coins. I mentioned that I was looking for one of the WW1 soldier push-outs. He said that he thought he had one at home. Later, after the show, we exchanged emails and confirmed that he had one and we made a deal. Now I have this one ! I didn't think I would ever actually find one. I especially like that these were made in Denver using WW1-era 1918-D cents:

BLUEJAYWAY

Something I had not seen before. Very nice.

Namvet69

Excellent get! Better than repousse' IMO. Peace Roy

CaptHenway

Interesting.

Was the piece "pickled" after the punchout process?

JeffersonFrog

Way cool. The reverse looks very clean for an ex-jewelry piece. Where was the other piece of the cuff link attached, or was it a brooch?

johnny9434

I don't have penny ladies adress to send her this link 😕

TomB

That is so cool!

JBK

Who said it was an ex-jewelry? What did miss? 🤔

The coin would have been pressed between two dies. The die the obverse was pressed into would have been very detailed and the reverse die just a rough contour of the design.

Presumably the dies would have been roughly the size of the cent so as to support the parts of the coin not being pressed, to prevent the coin from folding under the localized pressure. From the appearance the reverse die was a lot rougher and/or there was some protective material on the obverse.

JeffersonFrog

@JBK said:
Who said it was an ex-jewelry? What did miss? 🤔

The Liberty Coin Jewelry was available as a cufflink, brooch, or stick pin according to the original ad. The picture in the OP looks like the cufflink had a stud connected to the coin. Maybe I missed something, but that's why I asked.

braddick

Now I want one even more!

JBK

@JeffersonFrog said:

@JBK said:
Who said it was an ex-jewelry? What did miss? 🤔

The Liberty Coin Jewelry was available as a cufflink, brooch, or stick pin according to the original ad. The picture in the OP looks like the cufflink had a stud connected to the coin. Maybe I missed something, but that's why I asked.

Yes, I think you're right (here and in your first post). I had missed the original post and was just going by the recent photo.

I agree that it's usually clean for jewelry - makes sense that the reverse was "cleaned up".

dcarr

This one did have a cufflink attached to the back, via a small spot of solder in the center recess. I removed it.

It appears that the surface finish of these, as issued, was "antiqued" via light sand-blasting, patina application, and a little bit of burnishing.

JBK

Hmmm...the ad says "oxidized silver finish". I wonder if they later/earlier offered bronze.

dcarr

@JBK said:
Hmmm...the ad says "oxidized silver finish". I wonder if they later/earlier offered bronze.

Well, I have been holding out on you guys a little bit. The dealer actually had two and I bought both. Strangely, one had silvering and the the other did not. Here are both side-by-side:

DCW

Those are great! Never seen them before, Dan. Thanks for posting

Meltdown

@dcarr - Very cool. Is this something you could possibly re-produce at some point? It'd be really neat to see a modern version, maybe over a steel WWII cent?

DCW

@Meltdown said:
@dcarr - Very cool. Is this something you could possibly re-produce at some point? It'd be really neat to see a modern version, maybe over a steel WWII cent?

Maybe a modern soldier from Iraq War on 2003 Cent?
Hell, he could do a whole series of wars...WWII, Korea, Vietnam. All from Lincoln Cents

JBK

@DCW said:

@Meltdown said:
@dcarr - Very cool. Is this something you could possibly re-produce at some point? It'd be really neat to see a modern version, maybe over a steel WWII cent?

Maybe a modern soldier from Iraq War on 2003 Cent?
Hell, he could do a whole series of wars...WWII, Korea, Vietnam. All from Lincoln Cents

I like the idea in theory, but I don't like doing anything major with zinc cents. With that process I assume the zinc would be exposed.

PerryHall

@JBK said:

@DCW said:

@Meltdown said:
@dcarr - Very cool. Is this something you could possibly re-produce at some point? It'd be really neat to see a modern version, maybe over a steel WWII cent?

Maybe a modern soldier from Iraq War on 2003 Cent?
Hell, he could do a whole series of wars...WWII, Korea, Vietnam. All from Lincoln Cents

I like the idea in theory, but I don't like doing anything major with zinc cents. With that process I assume the zinc would be exposed.

That was my first thought. After creating the push out, you could always copper plate it to hide and protect the exposed zinc.