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New Purchase-Exonumia-medal with a shaft and “claws” attached-vintage coin doctor dipping tool?
Mr_Spud
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Long story short - impulse buy on eBay - below are auction description and some pictures- what is this thing? My theory is talented coin doctor made this back in the day for coin dipping - the manufacturer of the device probably knew how to move metal too to have this level of skill to manufacture this. Alternate theory - these were produced by a company back in the day when craftsmanship outweighed mass production. What do you think?
Mr_Spud
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I'm not sure that's a coin dipping tool (versus some other sort of grasping tool), but I like it.
Actually, a Google image search suggests that it was made for gripping sugar cubes.
Very interesting, I hadn’t considered that type of possibility 🤔
I’ll add that to my mental list of possible explanations 🌞
Mr_Spud
Have you tried to pick up a small coin such as a dime from a flat surface? I'm guessing you'd have difficulty.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
was purchased as sugar Tongs
No, not yet, I just yesterday picked it up at the mailbox store. At this stage, I’m just sort of brainstorming for clues as to what it might be and/or what the particular symbolism of the token is all about.
Mr_Spud
Excellent clue, makes the sugar cube theory much higher in my (imaginary) probability ranking 🕵️
Mr_Spud
Three prong tongs for picking up olives?
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
Hmmmm…..
Mr_Spud
I guess “sugar tongs” is as good as anything I could come up with? 🤔
Collector since 1976. On the CU forums here since 2001.
Since sugar cubes have straight sides, sugar tongs usually only have two prongs.
I think we can all agree that this device has nothing to do with coins.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
It should be on the Tongs Forum
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
Or the Sugar Forum (and surprisingly there is one!).
Well, since the responses are dwindling, I just now tried to at least identify the design of the token looking thing on the top of the “alleged” sugar cube pickerupper
Here are the closest publicly available links connected to Collectors Universe / PCGS resources for the three related items mentioned earlier. Direct discussion threads on the main PCGS forums or CoinTalk are scarce for these specific pieces.
1. 1938 Swedish 2-kronor commemorative (KM#807, Kalmar Nyckel ship design) https://coins.www.collectors-society.com/wcm/coinview.aspx?sc=820796 (This is a detailed registry-set page on the Collectors Society site, part of the Collectors Universe family.)
2. 1936/1938 U.S. Delaware Tercentenary half dollar https://www.pcgs.com/coinfacts/coin/1936-50c-delaware/9301 (PCGS CoinFacts page) Additional PCGS article: https://www.pcgs.com/news/1936-delaware-tercentenary-commemorative-half-dollar
3. 1988 New Sweden 350th-anniversary medals These appear only in passing in broader commemorative articles rather than dedicated forum threads. One reference is in the ANA Numismatist piece that also covers the 1938 Swedish medals: https://the-numismatist.mydigitalpublication.com/article/Commemoratives/4642658/804720/article.html
The Nilsson/Sporrong medal you have remains uncommon in U.S. forum discussions compared with the circulating 2-kronor coin and the U.S. half dollar.
Mr_Spud
I also found this doing similar but identical AI detective question
This is a 1938 Swedish commemorative medal (not a circulating coin) honoring the 300th anniversary of the founding of New Sweden. The piece you photographed shows the obverse featuring the ship Calmare Nyckel (also spelled Kalmar Nyckel), dated 1638.
The inscription reads “CALMARE NYCKEL” (the “W” appearance is almost certainly the stylized lettering of “N” in the original engraving). It was designed by Swedish medalist Svante E. Nilsson (1869–1942) and struck by Sporrong & Co. of Stockholm in bronze and silver versions, typically around 53–56 mm. Nilsson’s name usually appears on the obverse, and the edge is often marked “SPORRONG & CO.”
The Ship Design
The Kalmar Nyckel (“Key of Kalmar”) was a Dutch-built pinnace purchased by the city of Kalmar in 1629 and later used by Sweden. In 1638 it carried the first Swedish and Finnish settlers (under Peter Minuit) across the Atlantic to the Delaware River, where they established the short-lived colony of New Sweden (Nya Sverige) near present-day Wilmington, Delaware. The ship made multiple transatlantic voyages—an unusual feat for the era—before being sold and later lost.
The medal’s engraving depicts the vessel under sail on stylized waves, capturing its 17th-century rigging and form. This side emphasizes the voyage itself.
The Reverse and Overall Purpose
The reverse typically shows a detailed map of the New Sweden colony (with village names on ribbons, a royal shield dated 1638–1655, and sometimes symbolic figures like a Lenape hunter or animals). A Latin motto around the rim translates roughly to “In memory of New Sweden, founded 1638.” The slightly convex center on some examples is thought to evoke the curvature of the Earth and the long journey.
Sweden and the United States both marked the 1938 tercentenary with events, coins, and medals. Sweden also issued a circulating silver 2-kronor commemorative (KM# 807) the same year with a different rendering of the same ship by Erik Lindberg, but that coin has different legends (“NOVÆ SUECIÆ SUECIA MEMOR”) and is much smaller (31 mm). Your piece matches the larger Nilsson medal rather than the coin.
These medals were sold in Sweden at the time (around 10–25 kronor depending on metal) and remain collectible among those interested in Swedish colonial history, maritime medals, or New Sweden / Delaware commemoratives. A modern replica of the ship itself sails out of Wilmington today.
Mr_Spud
So, with those new leads I’m hot on the trail….. from https://the-numismatist.mydigitalpublication.com/publication/?i=804720&article_id=4642658&view=articleBrowser
(To be continued……)
Mr_Spud
The story continues
The medal sat in a velvet-lined box that had not been opened since 1938. Its silver surface still carried the faint scent of old paper and linseed oil. On one side a three-masted pinnace drove through stylized waves, the Latinized name CALMARE NYCKEL arched above it and the date 1638 cut cleanly below. The reverse showed a raised map of a narrow river valley, villages marked on tiny ribbons, a royal shield dated 1638–1655. Tucked behind the medal was a fragile 17th-century-style engraving labeled NOVA SVECIA, the Delaware River winding north toward Philadelphia, the words “The Rocks” faintly visible near the landing site.
That was the first key.
The second key was a single line written in a 1938 collector’s hand on the back of the map: “After Christina fell, the northern passage kept the remainder.”
New Sweden lasted only seventeen years. In March 1638 the Kalmar Nyckel and the smaller Fogel Grip dropped anchor at a hidden bend of the Minquas Kill, now the Christina River. Peter Minuit, the same man who had bought Manhattan, purchased land from the Lenape and raised Fort Christina. The colony stretched along the Delaware into what would become Pennsylvania and New Jersey. When the Dutch finally overran it in 1655, most Swedes and Finns stayed. A few, however, slipped away with what portable wealth they still possessed: a handful of Swedish öre, Dutch lion dollars, and a small iron-bound box of trade tokens.
One of those men, according to a later family tradition recorded in a 1938 tercentenary program, followed the old Indian trails and river routes north. He reached the great river the Dutch called the North River—the Hudson. There, among the highlands, he buried the box “where the castle of stone would one day stand, but the key would still be wood and water.”
The 1938 medals were struck by Sporrong & Co. in Stockholm for the tercentenary. Most were sold as souvenirs. A very few, according to the same program notes, were given to descendants who still held pieces of the original story. One of those descendants lived in the Hudson Valley. He added a private mark to his medal and hid a second, smaller token inside an old National Coin Album binder—the kind with the Faxon name stamp on the spine.
The trail therefore ran like this:
Start at “The Rocks” in Wilmington, where the Kalmar Nyckel first landed. Follow the Delaware north, then cut across to the Hudson at the old portage near the Water Gap. Travel upriver past the palisades, past the spot where Henry Hudson himself had turned back in 1609, past Sleepy Hollow and the old Dutch manors. The final bearing pointed to a small island in the Hudson highlands—Pollepel Island, later called Bannerman’s Island. In the early 1900s a munitions dealer built a mock Scottish castle there to store surplus arms. In 1920 part of it exploded. The ruins still stand, half-swallowed by trees, accessible only by boat.
The story claims the original 17th-century box was never found by Bannerman. It was placed, the notes say, in a stone niche that predates the castle, a niche that can be reached only when the river is at a certain height and the light hits a particular crack in the remaining wall. Inside, according to the 1938 note, would be the last of the New Sweden tokens, a few early Swedish coins, and a small brass key stamped with the same ship that appears on the 1938 medal.
Whether the box is still there is another question. The river has risen and fallen for four centuries. The castle has burned and crumbled. But the map, the medal, and the single handwritten line remain.
The Hudson Valley has always kept secrets. The Dutch hid furs and wampum. The English hid payrolls during the Revolution. A Swedish soldier who had already lost one colony may have decided the great river to the north was the safest vault of all.
The medal is real. The map is real. The landing at The Rocks is real. The rest is the kind of story the river itself seems to invite—half history, half shadow, waiting for someone willing to take a boat out at the right tide and look where the stone meets the water.
Coming soon, part 2, in the meantime, here is a clue:
https://youtu.be/vz9WNOkVTWo?is=rbXL216G6B75johh
Mr_Spud
But first, back to the original theory that it is a coin doctors dipping tool, it does indeed hold coins quite well and would work great for dipping a coin 🤔
Here’s a couple quick pictures of it holding a dime, but it opens wide enough that it could also accommodate larger coins, I reckon
And, maybe, just maybe….. there’s another clue….
Mr_Spud
🕵️♂️🕵🏽♂️🕵🏽♂️
Mr_Spud
Reminds me of this.
https://www.harryepstein.com/products/wwii-era-adco-mechanical-fingers
For what it is worth Google lens says:
https://share.google/aimode/AKUU5rY6ly1x0nVZq
Most important Leaving for Pittsburgh, and ANA this morning.......
Sees Ya'll there......
I think it is a tool to remove a tracking device from deep inside your nasal cavity.
Very interesting, I hadn’t thought of that possibility before
Mr_Spud
Appears to be device for snatching kidney stones.
Didn't your Mother ever tell you "Don't stick beans up your nose?"
This is what the doctor uses when you didn't listen!
Coming soon, here’s the outline to movie plot
Freedom Fighters from the future where all humans have a chip inserted in their head immediately after birth rescue certain people and take them back in time prior to modern technology so they can’t be tracked by the Opressors. They go back in time using ancient technology and land on one of several pyramids in mesoamerica. The tool is used to extract the chip after trepanning. If the chip is removed normally it sends a shock wave killing the person trying to remove it, but there needs to be at least some modern electric circuitry for the Oppressors killshock technology. Since using ancient technology to time travel beck before electricity was common, the chip can safely be removed. After healing, if the trepanning was successful, they have new untrackable Freedom Fighter that came forward in time to plot to overcome the Opressors.
It’s either that or a device to pick olives out of jars in bars. 🤔
Mr_Spud