1901 Pan-American Exposition NewP

cmerlo1

The new tub o'dollars at the B&M produced the stickered Morgan I posted about here earlier, and @shortnock pulled this encased IHC out of that bin as well and handed it to me, knowing I collect stuff like this.

The 1901 cent is encased in a good luck piece from the 1901 Pan-American Exposition held in Buffalo, NY. The Expo is probably best remembered as being the site where on September 6, 1901, Leon Czolgosz shot President William McKinley, who died 8 days later.

I imagine when purchased new, the cent was uncirculated. It and the piece still have a lot of detail.

P0CKETCHANGE

That’s an interesting piece. It looks like the outer ring is “minted” after the cent is placed, as you can see how the metal on the coin’s obverse rim was pressured. This would be a cool modern day pocket piece, although admittedly I have no sense of it’s value.

tokenpro

Yes, that's how they are made - a cent is placed in the center of an aluminum blank which expands tightly around the cent when the aluminum is struck. Most of the manufacturers took care to orient the coin the same on each piece & the press operators were expected to work quickly which reportedly resulted in fingers getting mangled and lost during production. (That's straight info from talking to several retired old times from local die sinking firms that go back 100+ years).

1901 was the first extensive appearance of encased coins and the massive amount produced at the Pan-Am Expo introduced them around the country through visitors returning from the fair. The earliest round encased are 38mm which were eventually replaced around 1909 and on by the familiar 35mm encasements. They are still the most frequently encountered size to this day. Earl Fankhouser was a one man promotion machine from Fort Wayne, Indiana and pushed encased coins as business cards throughout the 1950's and 1960's. He had his orders filled by Osborne Mfg. of Cincinnati, Ohio which used a 32mm frame for the most part.

A TAMS article cataloging the varieties of Pan-American Exposition encased was published quite a few years back. It is probably accessible through the Newman Portal. TAMS also published a catalog of all the Earl Fankhouser issues as a supplement to the TAMS Journal.

NumisOxide

Nice pickup!

cmerlo1

@tokenpro said:
Yes, that's how they are made - a cent is placed in the center of an aluminum blank which expands tightly around the cent when the aluminum is struck. Most of the manufacturers took care to orient the coin the same on each piece & the press operators were expected to work quickly which reportedly resulted in fingers getting mangled and lost during production. (That's straight info from talking to several retired old times from local die sinking firms that go back 100+ years).

1901 was the first extensive appearance of encased coins and the massive amount produced at the Pan-Am Expo introduced them around the country through visitors returning from the fair. The earliest round encased are 38mm which were eventually replaced around 1909 and on by the familiar 35mm encasements. They are still the most frequently encountered size to this day. Earl Fankhouser was a one man promotion machine from Fort Wayne, Indiana and pushed encased coins as business cards throughout the 1950's and 1960's. He had his orders filled by Osborne Mfg. of Cincinnati, Ohio which used a 32mm frame for the most part.

A TAMS article cataloging the varieties of Pan-American Exposition encased was published quite a few years back. It is probably accessible through the Newman Portal. TAMS also published a catalog of all the Earl Fankhouser issues as a supplement to the TAMS Journal.

This is great info, thank you! Looking at eBay, these are really common, but I love the design and the history associated with it. I'll check out the TAMS info as well.

Flatwoods

Nice pickup.
I like these too, so far I have resisted the temptation.

ricko

These were real popular when I was a kid. Most of us had one or two at some point. Often popped out the cent so we could buy a 'penny candy'.... I do not have any now, but lots and lots of cents, so those old one's must have brought me luck. Cheers, RickO