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~ "Gutta-Percha 4 The Weekend" ~

BroadstruckBroadstruck Posts: 30,497 ✭✭✭✭✭
OK this should be a short thread image

Wondering if anyone can post a pics of a token or medal struck on a Gutta-Percha planchect image

Also would like to know if it darkens with age like copper or if you see a dark brown example instead of reddish brown was that it's original color image

Thanks in advance! image
To Err Is Human.... To Collect Err's Is Just Too Much Darn Tootin Fun!

Comments

  • MidLifeCrisisMidLifeCrisis Posts: 10,550 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Well, that stumped me. Never heard of it.
  • ShamikaShamika Posts: 18,785 ✭✭✭✭
    Buyer and seller of vintage coin boards!
  • ShamikaShamika Posts: 18,785 ✭✭✭✭
    Galveston, Harrisburg, & San Antonio Token. When Thomas W. Peirce finally got his Galveston, Harrisburg, & San Antonio Railway building westward from Columbus, TX toward San Antonio in April of 1873, one of the more unusual problems faced by the management was a shortage of "small change". The Coinage Act of 1873, enacted February 12th of that year, embraced the gold standard and de-monetized silver, and there was a temporary shortage of coins during the transition. According to S.G. Reed in his 1941 History of Texas Railroads " To meet this [need] General Manager H. B. Andrews paid the men off partly in gutta percha tokens about the size of a quarter of the value of 25 cents 'good for meals' and which he agreed to redeem in full. These passed current at par not only at boarding houses but in stores along the line until several years after the road was completed. It was a common saying at the time that Peirce was the only man who was smart enough to build a railroad with meal tickets." These tokens represent the earliest evidence in "hardware" (versus paper) of the use of the Sunset Route phrase and logo. Info and photos by Ken Stavinoha. Click on the thumbnail images for larger versions.


    imageimage
    Buyer and seller of vintage coin boards!
  • DoubleEagle59DoubleEagle59 Posts: 8,377 ✭✭✭✭✭
    We're talking golf balls, right?
    "Gold is money, and nothing else" (JP Morgan, 1912)

    "“Those who sacrifice liberty for security/safety deserve neither.“(Benjamin Franklin)

    "I only golf on days that end in 'Y'" (DE59)
  • BroadstruckBroadstruck Posts: 30,497 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>Well, that stumped me. Never heard of it. >>



    Yeah I can imaging a few Google/Yahoo searches happening on this one image
    To Err Is Human.... To Collect Err's Is Just Too Much Darn Tootin Fun!
  • BroadstruckBroadstruck Posts: 30,497 ✭✭✭✭✭
    imageimage >>



    Shamika, Thanks for posting this example! image

    Since you own this Black Gutta-Percha example looking at the red areas on the obverse do you feel they occurred due to faulty color mixture image
    To Err Is Human.... To Collect Err's Is Just Too Much Darn Tootin Fun!
  • ShamikaShamika Posts: 18,785 ✭✭✭✭

    It appears to be some sort of grime. But alas, I do not own this specimen.


    Buyer and seller of vintage coin boards!
  • PerryHallPerryHall Posts: 46,817 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Gutta percha is a hard black rubber that was used to make things like combs. It predates Bakelite and other early plastics. Early Colt revolvers had grip panels made of gutta percha.

    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

  • ambro51ambro51 Posts: 13,945 ✭✭✭✭✭
    It was also used to make the uniform buttons on the dark green uniforms issued to Berdans Sharpshooters during the Civil War, as the govt slowly got the idea to try and "camo" the soldiers.
  • SwampboySwampboy Posts: 13,100 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I remember reading that gutta percha was used to coat the first transatlantic cables.
    I'm amazed to read it was also used to coin a token.

    "Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working" Pablo Picasso

  • MacCrimmonMacCrimmon Posts: 7,058 ✭✭✭
    Oh, coins? I thought you wanted a pic of my root canal. image
  • BroadstruckBroadstruck Posts: 30,497 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>It was also used to make the uniform buttons on the dark green uniforms issued to Berdans Sharpshooters during the Civil War, as the govt slowly got the idea to try and "camo" the soldiers. >>



    Scovill Manufacturing beyond buttons also made highly decorative Daguerreotype Photograph Cases and presentation holders for Silver and Bronze medals out of Gutta-Percha.
    To Err Is Human.... To Collect Err's Is Just Too Much Darn Tootin Fun!
  • illini420illini420 Posts: 11,466 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Is "Guttag Pedigree" close enough??? image

    imageimage
  • savoyspecialsavoyspecial Posts: 7,310 ✭✭✭✭
    i will admit to having no idea what this thread was about until i opened it......honestly, my first thought was that Broadstruck was doing a 'Good Purchases For the Weekend' thread but i wondered why he was invoking a mock-Italian accent

    www.brunkauctions.com

  • ambro51ambro51 Posts: 13,945 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>Scovill Manufacturing beyond buttons also made highly decorative Daguerreotype Photograph Cases and presentation holders for Silver and Bronze medals out of Gutta-Percha. >>

    .......actually not true. The material used was called thermoplastic and is made from sawdust shellac a few other chemicals under heat and pressure in molds. Not related to gutta percha at all

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