Exonumia advice/second opinion needed on potential purchase

lordmarcovan

I like the Columbian Expo elongates but this is something purportedly scarcer.



When did they start elongating coins, anyway? Those Columbian Expo pieces are the oldest I am aware of that were rolled out on special machines.



One seller on eBay has a bunch of elongated large cents but they look like they were done in the late 1800s or early 1900s.



Need an advisor I can PM a link to for a second opinion, since I've never bought a collectible elongate before.

Zoins

According to Wikipedia:



"The first elongated coins in the United States were created at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois, held in 1893."



"The earliest elongated coin designer on record is Charles Damm, who created the design for the elongated coins available at the 1901 Pan American Exposition in Buffalo, New York."


For an expert, you can contact our board member Tom Hoffman (tmot99) who runs 1893columbianexpo.com.

TopographicOceans

I would think there are elongated coins from the 1800's made the old fashioned way -- by putting them on railroad tracks.

lordmarcovan

Zoins- thanks. Maybe I'll send tmot99 a PM, though the piece I'm looking at is not a Columbian Expo elongate. (Still early, though- pre WW1.)

ricko

The 'railroad track' comment is valid to a certain extent.... though they were never

uniform like the machine made versions - if you could find them. I know there are still many

up around the tracks we used to play by in my hometown.... we probably found only 20% of the

ones we put on the tracks. Cheers, RickO

Zoins

In addition to railroad track coins being non-uniform, they didn't have any of designs of their own did they?