FSH: Eclectic exonumia: Some better So-Called Dollars, medals, a couple of errors, and other stuff [
jonathanb
Posts: 3,669 ✭✭✭✭✭
I haven't posted much of anything for sale here in a while. That's convenient, because it means that I have fresh stuff available now, which might get me some end-of-the-year cash, and might get some board members some end-of-the-year presents for themselves... 
Listed prices include shipping within the US. If you need shipping outside the US, I'll treat you fairly but I need to figure out what it'll mean to ship whereever you want it to go. Talk to me and we'll work something out.
Some of these may show up on eBay at some point if they don't find homes with board members. If they do show up on eBay, my prices there might be higher than you see here. Or they might be lower. If you like, you can consider these as Buy It Now prices for board members only...
(If you only care about the errors, they're the last items in this post.)
For starters, some better So-Called Dollars...
HK-8 1854 Crystal Palace Dollar. This is actually a British medal, but Hibler and Kappen didn't realize that when they produced their reference in 1963. This specimen has the typical grungy look that white metal pieces often get. I had two very similar pieces, and I was discussing with someone else whether they would be slabbed by NGC or bagged for environmental damage. I though (still think) that they should be bagged. He insisted that they would slab without problem. I compromized and submitted just one of the two. Indeed it came back slabbed as MS-60. This is the one that I didn't send in. It'll send it to NGC eventually, and I expect that it will come back as MS-60 just like the first one, at which point I'll ask for 50% more. If you want it unslabbed now, you can have it for...
$250
HK-405, the Georgia Fund Dollar from the Panama Pacific Expo. The State Fund Pan Pac so-calleds fall into three tiers: Common-ish pieces (Montana, Oregon), rare pieces (Maryland, Missisissippi), and really rare pieces (Tennessee, Kentucky). The Georgia design is firmly in the middle category. As a plus, this one is also listed as a top pop, with 2 specimens in the NGC online census at AU-55 and none in any other grade.
$450
HK-507, U.S. Capitol Sesquicentennial Dollar in silver. Fairly common in copper, not so common in silver.
$250
HK-510, Cradle of the Union Dollar in silver. As with the previous: Fairly common in copper, not so common in silver.
$250
End of So-Called Dollars. Remaining medals listed more or less in date order, definitely not in value order. Be sure to check out the whole list. There's a reason I've titled this post as eclectic...
DeWitt WHH 1836-1. Political token for the 1836 campaign of William Henry Harrison (in fact, the only political token produced for his 1836 campaign). Copper. 30mm. Unholed. This is a crude reproduction of the US Mint medal (MI-14) awwarded to him for his victory at the Battle of Thames, October 5, 1813.
$175
DeWitt WHH 1840-7. A nice large (40mm) political campaign medal struck on a thick (3.6mm) planchet. Brass. Very nice condition except for a bummer of a fingerprint on the reverse.
$125
Political items from the 1840 presidential campaign. 5 tokens for William Henry Harrison, 1 for Martin Van Buren, plus two clothing buttons for Harrison. From left to right: WHH 1840-23, WHH 1840-28, MVB 1840-9, WHH 1840-43, WHH 1840-49, WHH 1840-52, WHH 1840-109, WHH 1840-69. I think those are accurate, but you should double check if the exact attributions are important to you. There are lots of similar varieties of tokens for the 1840 campaign.
$225 for the group
1848 U.S. Mint medal honoring painter Gilbert Stuart, perhaps best known for his unfinished portrait of Washington. Julian PE-33, by C. C. Wright, 250 struck. 65mm copper, bronzed, with signs of an old cleaning in the obverse fields and several rim dings
$150
Ferrotype badge produced for the 1860 presidential campaign of John Bell and Edward Everett. As we know, they lost. There were four major candidate in that campaign -- and we think we have it bad now! DeWitt JBELL 1860-33. Frame is dark but uncorroded. Bell ferrotype has crazing and some emulsion loss not affecting the portrait. Everett ferrotype has crazing but is intact.
$250
EP-33 Take Ayer's Pills 3c Encased postage stamp. HB-18. EP-33. Reed-AP03. Scott-9. An interesting solution to a lack of circulating coinage. That's an actual postage stamp in a mica frame, from the 1860s or so. The stamp is covered, but obviously not with plastic given the time period. Not glass, either. They used mica. This one has some crazing in the mica, but it is fully intact.
$250
1869 International Organization of Odd Fellows (IOOF) 50th anniversary medal. 50.8mm, white metal.
$75
1869 International Organization of Odd Fellows (IOOF) medal picturing Thomas Wildey. 38.3mm, white metal, holed. By W. H. Key. Although this exact medal isn't listed in Rulau, it is a mul of two listed dies: the obverse die of Rulau Pa-Ph 181P and the obverse die of Rulau Pa-Ph 181A.
$60
1869 U.S. Mint medal honoring Bolivian Dictator-I-mean-President Mariano Melgarejo. I don't know my Bolivian history at all, but even a quick look shows that history has not treated Melgarejo kindly. Julian PE-23, very few struck. These are rare to say the least. The dies are signed by Paquet, so there's no doubt the Mint was involved, but Julian suggests that they might have actually been struck in Bolivia. In any case, good luck finding another, even with a couple of rim dings. 58mm, silver-plated bronze.
$750
1873 U.S. Mint medal honoring President Ulysses S. Grant. Julian PR-15, 197 struck. 76mm copper, bronzed.
$150
1875 U.S. Mint medal honoring Dr. W. H. Furness, Pastor of the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia. Julian PE-12, 300 struck. An unusual medal jointly signed by father-and-son engravers "W & C BARBER". 60mm copper, bronzed.
$150
circa late 1800s? Porcelain (?) doll body? Looks like Lincoln (?) Possibile political significance. Needs research. This appears to be the central part of a doll that would have had attached arms and legs. It is made of a hard white material that I'm calling porcelain because I don't know any other options, but if someone wants to suggest a non-porcelain hard white substance it might be that. It is glossy on the areas that were intended to be exposed and matte at the joints. There is a chip over the left ear. Approx. 54mm high x 16 mm wide x 20mm deep.
$30
1884 Views of Chicago souvenir book. "Published & Copyrighted, 1884, by Wittemann Bros., 192 Fulton St., New York". Approx 5 x 3.5 inches. 15 images shown on 12 pages. Inside accordian-fold pages have separated from one cover, as shown. OK, not a medal, but I bought it as being related to the Columbian Expo. It isn't directly related to the Columbian Expo either, but shows what the city looked like some 10 years earlier, as it was recovering from the Great Fire and before the huge changes brought by the Expo. See later in this list for other WCE-related items.
$20
1889 N. J. Schloss & Co watch fob produced as a miniature of the award won by them at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. Rulau NY-NY A270. 31.4mm, with lots of gilt remaining
$10
1890-H Ecuador 1/2 centavo, with one side planed smooth and painted with a painstaking scene showing afarmer (?) leading three llamas along a road in front of a mountain. Each llama is 2mm wide, yet there's no question about what is being depicted. I've encluded a huge enlargement, along with smaller images of the obverse and reverse that should appear more or less actual size (22mm), depending on your monitor settings. The painting is signed, and personally I can't make out the signature, but someone said that it's "obviously" the work of Emilio Moncayo (1898-1970). You can decide for yourself, if you think the attribution is important. There is onf flake of paint loss in the sky to the right of the mountain. If you look at it quickly it sort of looks like the Sun, but really it's a missing flake of paint. The unpainted side is heavily corroded, which isn't entirely surprising given that this piece has been in contact with who knows what kind of paints for who knows how long. I still think this is an incredibly cool piece, but I can't find a home for it in my collection, so maybe someone else will want it...
$250
(1893) A pair of silk ribbons relating to the World's Columbian Expo. Ribbons approximately 2 inches wide. Machinery Hall ribbon a bit over 7 inches tall (not including tassel), Star Spangled Banner ribbon a bit over 10 inches tall. Colors bright on both. Machinery Hall ribbon has a small tear at top and is missing approx 1/4 inch square at top left. The Machinery Hall ribbon is apparently "Rossen-Kaduck p. 51, #1" and was made by Best & Co. The Star Spangled Banner ribbon is apparently "Rossen-Kaduck p. 55, #2", maker unknown. I don't know what that reference is, but I found them described that way in an old auction catalog.
$100 for both, or your pick for $75
1896 25th anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire. I don't know what this large (60mm) medal is made from, but it's clearly cast with a prounouced (and sharp) casting seam along the edge. Very appropriate Phoenix-rising-from-the-ashes theme, with an unfortunate corrosion spot on the Phoenix's head.
$100
1897 Philadelphia Commercial Museum medal, struck at the US Mint. Not listed in the main portion of Julian's reference to medals struck at the US Mint since Julian stopped at 1892, but included in the appendix for later mintages, showing 500 struck in 1896/97. 34mm, silver.
$150
1898 Philadelphia Peace Jubilee Civic Day Committee badge. Peace Jubilees were held in several cities to celebrate the end of the Spanish-American War. A very nice badge apparently intact, with some yellowing of the background of the celluloid (?) drop. Approx 45 x 112mm
$50
1916 Franklin Institute Longstreth Medal to Arthur S. Eve, struck at the US Mint
The Edward Longstreth medal of the Franklin Institute is awarded "for useful invention, important discovery, and meritorious work in, or contributions to, science or the industrial arts."
This copy of the medal was awarded in 1916 to Arthur S(tewart). Eve. Dr. Eve was a physicist himself (at McGill University), a contemporary of Marie Curie, and a close friend of Ernest Rutherford. In later life he wrote the definitive biography of Rutherford, but in the early 1900s he was a leader in the young field studying radioactivity. I do not know what specific subject this medal was awarded for, but that information might possibly be obtained from the Franklin Institute directly.
The medal is 44.5 mm in diameter and weighs 45.4 grams. It was designed by G. Wilkens and struck at the US Mint. It is the very medal awarded to Dr. Eve, and is necessarily unique in that form. Like many early award medals, this does show signs of cleaning, with hairlines in the fields that were probably originally proof. There are several rim dings, the largest at 12:15 on the obverse, a smaller one at 5:00 on the reverse, and a few others even smaller.
$250
1927 Lindbergh Banquet medal by Julio Kilenyi. A virtual twin to this specimen sold in the last Presidential sale for a bit over $600. 83mm bronze.
$500
1927 Lindbergh Banquet medal by Julio Kilenyi. A second specimen. This is very similar to the previous with two significant differences. The surfaces are quite a bit darker and rougher, and this one is clearly stamped SAMPLE on the edge. Are the surface differences related to this being a sample that didn't make it into production? Beats me. I can't find any sales records of a piece marked as a sample. 83mm bronze.
$750
1930 National Air Races ("The Olympiad of the Air") 10th anniversary medal. The very epitome of Art Deco. A bronze specimen in AU sold in the last Presidential auction for $550. I have two pieces here, each 64mm. The bronze version might be strictly AU in terms of wear, but it has a lot of dings and bumps. The other version is more interesting. It's not marked, but it sure looks like silver to me. I haven't found any records for a sale of a silver version of this medal. If it isn't solid silver then it must be silver-plated, and I can't find records of a plated version either. In any case, the white-colored medal is in choice uncirculated condition in its original felt-lined box. You can have both pieces for what might be the best bargain in this whole list...
$1000/pair
c1960 (?) This was presented to me as a "$1000 a plate dinner check" for a dinner honoring JFK. Given that C. G. Hallberg is a noted Swedish medallist, that seems unlikely, but that then leaves open the question of what it really is. Needs research from someone who can figure out the hallmarks on reverse. 31.4mm, silver, polished with test cut at 12:00.
$25
c1960s National Medal for Literature sponsored by the Guinzburg Fund, unawarded. A very striking image of an eagle unlike the staid depictions normally seen. 63mm, bronze (marked), by the Medallic Art Company.
$50
1999 1c full obverse die caps, x2. These clearly aren't medals, but I'll be good and not start a new thread. There are two separate pieces here, shown in front/back/side view (before being slabbed, obviously), and in the slabs. The "reverse" of these pieces (outer surfaces) show brockage images of the obverse designs, meaning that counterbrockage pieces were being produced while these caps were in place.
$500 each
Listed prices include shipping within the US. If you need shipping outside the US, I'll treat you fairly but I need to figure out what it'll mean to ship whereever you want it to go. Talk to me and we'll work something out.
Some of these may show up on eBay at some point if they don't find homes with board members. If they do show up on eBay, my prices there might be higher than you see here. Or they might be lower. If you like, you can consider these as Buy It Now prices for board members only...
(If you only care about the errors, they're the last items in this post.)
For starters, some better So-Called Dollars...
HK-8 1854 Crystal Palace Dollar. This is actually a British medal, but Hibler and Kappen didn't realize that when they produced their reference in 1963. This specimen has the typical grungy look that white metal pieces often get. I had two very similar pieces, and I was discussing with someone else whether they would be slabbed by NGC or bagged for environmental damage. I though (still think) that they should be bagged. He insisted that they would slab without problem. I compromized and submitted just one of the two. Indeed it came back slabbed as MS-60. This is the one that I didn't send in. It'll send it to NGC eventually, and I expect that it will come back as MS-60 just like the first one, at which point I'll ask for 50% more. If you want it unslabbed now, you can have it for...
$250
HK-405, the Georgia Fund Dollar from the Panama Pacific Expo. The State Fund Pan Pac so-calleds fall into three tiers: Common-ish pieces (Montana, Oregon), rare pieces (Maryland, Missisissippi), and really rare pieces (Tennessee, Kentucky). The Georgia design is firmly in the middle category. As a plus, this one is also listed as a top pop, with 2 specimens in the NGC online census at AU-55 and none in any other grade.
$450
HK-507, U.S. Capitol Sesquicentennial Dollar in silver. Fairly common in copper, not so common in silver.
$250
HK-510, Cradle of the Union Dollar in silver. As with the previous: Fairly common in copper, not so common in silver.
$250
End of So-Called Dollars. Remaining medals listed more or less in date order, definitely not in value order. Be sure to check out the whole list. There's a reason I've titled this post as eclectic...
DeWitt WHH 1836-1. Political token for the 1836 campaign of William Henry Harrison (in fact, the only political token produced for his 1836 campaign). Copper. 30mm. Unholed. This is a crude reproduction of the US Mint medal (MI-14) awwarded to him for his victory at the Battle of Thames, October 5, 1813.
$175
DeWitt WHH 1840-7. A nice large (40mm) political campaign medal struck on a thick (3.6mm) planchet. Brass. Very nice condition except for a bummer of a fingerprint on the reverse.
$125
Political items from the 1840 presidential campaign. 5 tokens for William Henry Harrison, 1 for Martin Van Buren, plus two clothing buttons for Harrison. From left to right: WHH 1840-23, WHH 1840-28, MVB 1840-9, WHH 1840-43, WHH 1840-49, WHH 1840-52, WHH 1840-109, WHH 1840-69. I think those are accurate, but you should double check if the exact attributions are important to you. There are lots of similar varieties of tokens for the 1840 campaign.
$225 for the group
1848 U.S. Mint medal honoring painter Gilbert Stuart, perhaps best known for his unfinished portrait of Washington. Julian PE-33, by C. C. Wright, 250 struck. 65mm copper, bronzed, with signs of an old cleaning in the obverse fields and several rim dings
$150
Ferrotype badge produced for the 1860 presidential campaign of John Bell and Edward Everett. As we know, they lost. There were four major candidate in that campaign -- and we think we have it bad now! DeWitt JBELL 1860-33. Frame is dark but uncorroded. Bell ferrotype has crazing and some emulsion loss not affecting the portrait. Everett ferrotype has crazing but is intact.
$250
EP-33 Take Ayer's Pills 3c Encased postage stamp. HB-18. EP-33. Reed-AP03. Scott-9. An interesting solution to a lack of circulating coinage. That's an actual postage stamp in a mica frame, from the 1860s or so. The stamp is covered, but obviously not with plastic given the time period. Not glass, either. They used mica. This one has some crazing in the mica, but it is fully intact.
$250
1869 International Organization of Odd Fellows (IOOF) 50th anniversary medal. 50.8mm, white metal.
$75
1869 International Organization of Odd Fellows (IOOF) medal picturing Thomas Wildey. 38.3mm, white metal, holed. By W. H. Key. Although this exact medal isn't listed in Rulau, it is a mul of two listed dies: the obverse die of Rulau Pa-Ph 181P and the obverse die of Rulau Pa-Ph 181A.
$60
1869 U.S. Mint medal honoring Bolivian Dictator-I-mean-President Mariano Melgarejo. I don't know my Bolivian history at all, but even a quick look shows that history has not treated Melgarejo kindly. Julian PE-23, very few struck. These are rare to say the least. The dies are signed by Paquet, so there's no doubt the Mint was involved, but Julian suggests that they might have actually been struck in Bolivia. In any case, good luck finding another, even with a couple of rim dings. 58mm, silver-plated bronze.
$750
1873 U.S. Mint medal honoring President Ulysses S. Grant. Julian PR-15, 197 struck. 76mm copper, bronzed.
$150
1875 U.S. Mint medal honoring Dr. W. H. Furness, Pastor of the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia. Julian PE-12, 300 struck. An unusual medal jointly signed by father-and-son engravers "W & C BARBER". 60mm copper, bronzed.
$150
circa late 1800s? Porcelain (?) doll body? Looks like Lincoln (?) Possibile political significance. Needs research. This appears to be the central part of a doll that would have had attached arms and legs. It is made of a hard white material that I'm calling porcelain because I don't know any other options, but if someone wants to suggest a non-porcelain hard white substance it might be that. It is glossy on the areas that were intended to be exposed and matte at the joints. There is a chip over the left ear. Approx. 54mm high x 16 mm wide x 20mm deep.
$30
1884 Views of Chicago souvenir book. "Published & Copyrighted, 1884, by Wittemann Bros., 192 Fulton St., New York". Approx 5 x 3.5 inches. 15 images shown on 12 pages. Inside accordian-fold pages have separated from one cover, as shown. OK, not a medal, but I bought it as being related to the Columbian Expo. It isn't directly related to the Columbian Expo either, but shows what the city looked like some 10 years earlier, as it was recovering from the Great Fire and before the huge changes brought by the Expo. See later in this list for other WCE-related items.
$20
1889 N. J. Schloss & Co watch fob produced as a miniature of the award won by them at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. Rulau NY-NY A270. 31.4mm, with lots of gilt remaining
$10
1890-H Ecuador 1/2 centavo, with one side planed smooth and painted with a painstaking scene showing afarmer (?) leading three llamas along a road in front of a mountain. Each llama is 2mm wide, yet there's no question about what is being depicted. I've encluded a huge enlargement, along with smaller images of the obverse and reverse that should appear more or less actual size (22mm), depending on your monitor settings. The painting is signed, and personally I can't make out the signature, but someone said that it's "obviously" the work of Emilio Moncayo (1898-1970). You can decide for yourself, if you think the attribution is important. There is onf flake of paint loss in the sky to the right of the mountain. If you look at it quickly it sort of looks like the Sun, but really it's a missing flake of paint. The unpainted side is heavily corroded, which isn't entirely surprising given that this piece has been in contact with who knows what kind of paints for who knows how long. I still think this is an incredibly cool piece, but I can't find a home for it in my collection, so maybe someone else will want it...
$250
(1893) A pair of silk ribbons relating to the World's Columbian Expo. Ribbons approximately 2 inches wide. Machinery Hall ribbon a bit over 7 inches tall (not including tassel), Star Spangled Banner ribbon a bit over 10 inches tall. Colors bright on both. Machinery Hall ribbon has a small tear at top and is missing approx 1/4 inch square at top left. The Machinery Hall ribbon is apparently "Rossen-Kaduck p. 51, #1" and was made by Best & Co. The Star Spangled Banner ribbon is apparently "Rossen-Kaduck p. 55, #2", maker unknown. I don't know what that reference is, but I found them described that way in an old auction catalog.
$100 for both, or your pick for $75
1896 25th anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire. I don't know what this large (60mm) medal is made from, but it's clearly cast with a prounouced (and sharp) casting seam along the edge. Very appropriate Phoenix-rising-from-the-ashes theme, with an unfortunate corrosion spot on the Phoenix's head.
$100
1897 Philadelphia Commercial Museum medal, struck at the US Mint. Not listed in the main portion of Julian's reference to medals struck at the US Mint since Julian stopped at 1892, but included in the appendix for later mintages, showing 500 struck in 1896/97. 34mm, silver.
$150
1898 Philadelphia Peace Jubilee Civic Day Committee badge. Peace Jubilees were held in several cities to celebrate the end of the Spanish-American War. A very nice badge apparently intact, with some yellowing of the background of the celluloid (?) drop. Approx 45 x 112mm
$50
1916 Franklin Institute Longstreth Medal to Arthur S. Eve, struck at the US Mint
The Edward Longstreth medal of the Franklin Institute is awarded "for useful invention, important discovery, and meritorious work in, or contributions to, science or the industrial arts."
This copy of the medal was awarded in 1916 to Arthur S(tewart). Eve. Dr. Eve was a physicist himself (at McGill University), a contemporary of Marie Curie, and a close friend of Ernest Rutherford. In later life he wrote the definitive biography of Rutherford, but in the early 1900s he was a leader in the young field studying radioactivity. I do not know what specific subject this medal was awarded for, but that information might possibly be obtained from the Franklin Institute directly.
The medal is 44.5 mm in diameter and weighs 45.4 grams. It was designed by G. Wilkens and struck at the US Mint. It is the very medal awarded to Dr. Eve, and is necessarily unique in that form. Like many early award medals, this does show signs of cleaning, with hairlines in the fields that were probably originally proof. There are several rim dings, the largest at 12:15 on the obverse, a smaller one at 5:00 on the reverse, and a few others even smaller.
$250
1927 Lindbergh Banquet medal by Julio Kilenyi. A virtual twin to this specimen sold in the last Presidential sale for a bit over $600. 83mm bronze.
$500
1927 Lindbergh Banquet medal by Julio Kilenyi. A second specimen. This is very similar to the previous with two significant differences. The surfaces are quite a bit darker and rougher, and this one is clearly stamped SAMPLE on the edge. Are the surface differences related to this being a sample that didn't make it into production? Beats me. I can't find any sales records of a piece marked as a sample. 83mm bronze.
$750
1930 National Air Races ("The Olympiad of the Air") 10th anniversary medal. The very epitome of Art Deco. A bronze specimen in AU sold in the last Presidential auction for $550. I have two pieces here, each 64mm. The bronze version might be strictly AU in terms of wear, but it has a lot of dings and bumps. The other version is more interesting. It's not marked, but it sure looks like silver to me. I haven't found any records for a sale of a silver version of this medal. If it isn't solid silver then it must be silver-plated, and I can't find records of a plated version either. In any case, the white-colored medal is in choice uncirculated condition in its original felt-lined box. You can have both pieces for what might be the best bargain in this whole list...
$1000/pair
c1960 (?) This was presented to me as a "$1000 a plate dinner check" for a dinner honoring JFK. Given that C. G. Hallberg is a noted Swedish medallist, that seems unlikely, but that then leaves open the question of what it really is. Needs research from someone who can figure out the hallmarks on reverse. 31.4mm, silver, polished with test cut at 12:00.
$25
c1960s National Medal for Literature sponsored by the Guinzburg Fund, unawarded. A very striking image of an eagle unlike the staid depictions normally seen. 63mm, bronze (marked), by the Medallic Art Company.
$50
1999 1c full obverse die caps, x2. These clearly aren't medals, but I'll be good and not start a new thread. There are two separate pieces here, shown in front/back/side view (before being slabbed, obviously), and in the slabs. The "reverse" of these pieces (outer surfaces) show brockage images of the obverse designs, meaning that counterbrockage pieces were being produced while these caps were in place.
$500 each
0
Comments
thanks
RAH
[Also, some sold items removed now that they have been confirmed as being received by their happy new owner]
New items listed in the original post above:
1836 campaign token for William Henry Harrison
1840 large brass campaign token for William Henry Harrison
Group of small campaign tokens and buttons from the 1840 campaign
1864 John Bell / Edward Everett ferrotype
Take Ayer's Pills 3c Encased Postage
These are end-of-year listings! Anything that remains unsold at the end of the year may be unlisted as well! If you see something you like, get it while I'm offering!
Mark
Mark's Mattes
Mark's Cameo SMS Set
Mark's Non-Cameo SMS Set