So I threw out a cheapo bid, and won... now... what the heck IS the pictorial on this?
lordmarcovan
Posts: 43,931 ✭✭✭✭✭
Mine, for the princely sum of $7.16, with free shipping.
It's a pictorial, albeit crude. But weird and different enough that I went for it. And seven bucks for a pictorial Seated dime love token, no matter how crude, is a pretty good bargain.
So what do you think that is on the reverse? Seller called it a "bird", but I don't think so.
Looks more like a flying cigar.
Actually, the flying cigar almost looks like it has portholes, so it's more like an airliner without a tail, if you wanna go all Jules Verne in your thinking.
But I'm thinking what it most appears to be is a screw propeller. They might not have had airliners in the late 19th century, but they did have propellers like that on some ships.
But if that's the case, what's that line running perpendicular to the tip of the lower "propeller blade"?
Eh, who knows.
What do YOU think? Headless bird? Screw propeller? Weirdly primitive Victorian airliner? UFO? Extraterrestrial flower? Let's hear your theories. I'm sure they're as good as mine.
PS- it also sort of reminded me of another kind of carving sometimes seen on Flying Eagle cents, if you knowhutimean.
NSFW
It's a pictorial, albeit crude. But weird and different enough that I went for it. And seven bucks for a pictorial Seated dime love token, no matter how crude, is a pretty good bargain.
So what do you think that is on the reverse? Seller called it a "bird", but I don't think so.
Looks more like a flying cigar.
Actually, the flying cigar almost looks like it has portholes, so it's more like an airliner without a tail, if you wanna go all Jules Verne in your thinking.
But I'm thinking what it most appears to be is a screw propeller. They might not have had airliners in the late 19th century, but they did have propellers like that on some ships.
But if that's the case, what's that line running perpendicular to the tip of the lower "propeller blade"?
Eh, who knows.
What do YOU think? Headless bird? Screw propeller? Weirdly primitive Victorian airliner? UFO? Extraterrestrial flower? Let's hear your theories. I'm sure they're as good as mine.
PS- it also sort of reminded me of another kind of carving sometimes seen on Flying Eagle cents, if you knowhutimean.
NSFW
0
Comments
With the "dots" along the side, maybe it is supposed to be the windows on a jet? Only there so future coin collectors could muse on its origin and meaning.
But I guess it could be an Extraterrestrial flower.
Just because the coin was minted in 1875, it doesn't mean the reverse was engraved then.
But usually these Seated dime love tokens were engraved sometime in the 19th century.
Usually.
Then again, this one could've time-traveled, and that's a Znutorian battle cruiser from the Galactic Federation.
Y'never know.
(Yep, they did have parachutes in 1888, even if there were no airplanes yet.)
- Jim
A peeled banana with a bite taken out of it?
Hey, not bad. I can sorta buy that one.
Leviathan sea critter with really big flippers? I don't quite see it as such, but that's no worse than "bird".
I'm still stickin' with "screw propeller", though, for the time being.
DPOTD-3
'Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery'
CU #3245 B.N.A. #428
Don
Menomonee Falls Wisconsin USA
http://www.pcgs.com/SetRegistr...dset.aspx?s=68269&ac=1">Musky 1861 Mint Set
I can't figure that one at all.......
Cheers, RickO
a saguaro cactus in the desert with a couple mountains in the background
Check out my iPhone app SlabReader!
8 Reales Madness Collection
Instagram: 8 Reales Numis
It looks like a cigar... with the accompanying leaves of tobacco... symbolizing the 'rolling' of the cigar. Likely a gift to a smoker.....
Cheers, RickO
Looks like a cigar laying on top of two tobacco leaves
Y'know, i think y'all could be onto something there.
One of those protrusions looks decidely leaflike, and the central object looks more like a cigar than anything else. And that seems a much more likely subject for a 19th century carving than any discussed so far.
I'm converted. I'll go with "cigar and tobacco leaves" (it's the "leaves" that threw me off, or that's what I'd have said all along.)
But I'll stick with "screw propeller" for my second guess.
bob
Penis with wings?
Look it up in your Funk & Wagnalls!
My YouTube Channel
It looks like a cigar... with the accompanying leaves of tobacco... symbolizing the 'rolling' of the cigar. Likely a gift to a smoker.....
Cheers, RickO
Looks like a cigar laying on top of two tobacco leaves
Y'know, i think y'all could be onto something there.
One of those protrusions looks decidely leaflike, and the central object looks more like a cigar than anything else. And that seems a much more likely subject for a 19th century carving than any discussed so far.
I'm converted. I'll go with "cigar and tobacco leaves" (it's the "leaves" that threw me off, or that's what I'd have said all along.)
But I'll stick with "screw propeller" for my second guess.
I think the cigar folks are onto it. The scrolling at the left of the design could be smoke. My only other thought was that it was meant to be a bumble bee, and the scrolling was a primitive flower, but now I'm firmly in the cigar camp.
Sean Reynolds
"Keep in mind that most of what passes as numismatic information is no more than tested opinion at best, and marketing blather at worst. However, I try to choose my words carefully, since I know that you guys are always watching." - Joe O'Connor
Almost want to say the artist didn't finish what he had planned, and you're stuck trying to guess the intent with only a bare minimum start to the final design.
(Yes...that was very helpful. You're welcome).
Looks like "S D" to me.
Which means that maybe we should be looking at the engraved side at a. 90-degree leftward rotation from how we have been.
Viewed that way, with the initials right-side up, it doesn't rule out "cigar & leaves" or "propeller" or anything, really, but it does look... different.
I just think it's kind of odd to do such a good job removing the reverse design, plane it flat, and go so far as to place a decorative circle around the rim....and then engrave such a simple and child-like drawing!
Almost want to say the artist didn't finish what he had planned, and you're stuck trying to guess the intent with only a bare minimum start to the final design.
(Yes...that was very helpful. You're welcome).
Indeed. Indeed. But these were sometimes "prepped" by one party and engraved by another, later. If that's the case here, the latter was no great artist, but the clumsiness has its own appeal... and aura of intrigue. It's certainly "one of a kind"!
And I've already gotten more than $7.16 worth of fun from it, just by reading the conversation here.
If we were all the same, the world would be an incredibly boring place.
Tommy
The Mysterious Egyptian Magic Coin
Coins in Movies
Coins on Television
Nevermind, I'll answer my own question - it looks more like an ear of corn than any sort of winged animal.
Sean Reynolds
"Keep in mind that most of what passes as numismatic information is no more than tested opinion at best, and marketing blather at worst. However, I try to choose my words carefully, since I know that you guys are always watching." - Joe O'Connor
This dang mystery just keeps gettin' more mysterious.
Could be a ship's propeller
My first thought.
Great transactions with oih82w8, JasonGaming, Moose1913.
I don't buy ship propeller....would typically be 3 or 4 shorter blades with shorter hub in center. Looks more later day outboard motor, but again hub is wrong.
Could buy wood plane propeller but again hub is wrong.
Corn...nah, why would husks be bisecting the ear, instead of growing up and out of one end? And why is end of ear already cut off?
First instinct was cigar, with dots trying to represent wrapped leaf edges and end of cigar cut off. The asymmetric aspect of the backing leafs though casts some doubt, as well as that j-shaped line.
Obverse side discoloration is somewhat symmetrical...wonder if that is remnants of some sort of pin attachment? I agree the second letter being a "D". I could see this being worn on a lapel as some sort of shiny polished club membership button.
Remember when Gennifer Flowers was asked if her experience with Bill was the same as Monica's? She said "Close, but no cigar."
Lance.