Today is World Toilet Day. Post something numismatic showing plumbing etc.

SkyMan · November 19, 2013 10:17AM

Who knew? It looks like the UN is actually doing something useful. Today is a UN recognized event... it is world toilet day.

Truthfully poor sanitation is a major killer around the world. If you've got something numismatic having to do with plumbing, sanitation etc., please post it.

Here's the closest that I can come up with, a Temperance token that shows a well.

Broadstruck · November 19, 2013 10:40AM

Beck’s Public Baths Token, Virginia. Richmond, HT-441 / Low-275.

One of the most famous 19th century tokens listed in The 100 Greatest American Medals and Tokens by Q. David Bowers and Katherine Jaeger as their number 86.

While today we may think that, per the saying “cleanliness is next to godliness” it was not always so. In the period from about 1832 to 1844 when Charles Beck distributed his Beck’s Public Baths tokens in Richmond Virginia as bathing was an occasional experience at best. Houses did not have indoor plumbing and for most people in the city the closest thing to a bath was wiping with a soapy wet cloth. Across the country some academies and boarding schools made it an offense to bathe in the colder months as the practice being deemed unhealthy. For those who desired to bathe public baths were operated in most of the larger cities. Records show that in 1832 Charles Beck was a confectioner and the operator of a bathing facility. The baths were in operation until at least 1844. These tokens about the size of a quarter dollar may have circulated locally as currency or more likely they were used as admission checks.

In 1859 New York City numismatist Charles I. Bushnell published An Arrangement of Tradesmen’s Cards, Political Tokens. Soon the Beck’s token became a favorite with it’s somewhat risqué depiction of a nude woman. Naturally the popularity for this token was immediate and widespread due to the finely engraved naked woman on the obverse. Collectors with an eye for beauty eagerly latched onto these Beck’s Public Baths tokens at an early time. Demand has always exceeded supply since they were first noticed in Bushnell’s early reference.

kranky · November 19, 2013 10:42AM

Board old-timers might remember the classic photo from iras4, posing next to an item like this. Wish I had saved that photo.

coinsarefun · November 19, 2013 10:49AM

The commercial success of spa resorts like Bath and Buxton and on the Continent, like the original Spa in Belgium, inspired the hopeful development of numerous small spas. Taking the waters for health and the associated social scene became all the fashion. Water that was rich in iron salts was found at Holt in 1688 and the supposed benefits of drinking it were promoted widely, with a book being published in London by Henry Eyre in 1731. The water was bottled and sold as far away as London.

To accommodate the visitors to the summer season at the spa, the Great House, or Spa House, was built around 1730. It was seven bays wide and three storeys high and made of brick with ashlar dressings.
By the early 19th century the spa’s brief career was declining and the building became a private school and later was divided up into flats. From 1868 it became a glove factory, but in the middle of the 20th century it was becoming derelict and was demolished in March 1957.

Goldbully · November 19, 2013 10:53AM

nwcoast · November 19, 2013 10:57AM

I've shared this before so please forgive me that part.
Couldn't resist the rare opportunity to share it again, even if it is more related to pharmacy.