How were the early commems touted to the public?

Comments

• lonn47 Posts: 236 ✭✭✭

  June 24, 2019 9:00AM

  newspaper

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• kbbpll Posts: 542 ✭✭✭✭

  June 24, 2019 10:02AM

  The Columbian half dollar received "national fanfare" through newspaper articles, ads in newspapers across the US placed by fair officials, and publicity stunts like constructing a 22 foot replica of the Washington Monument out of coins. Unfortunately the Panic of 1893 set in, and paying double face value at a time when a beer cost 5 cents made the whole thing a bit of a flop,

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• topstuf Posts: 14,803 ✭✭✭✭✭

  June 24, 2019 10:38AM

  @kbbpll said:
  The Columbian half dollar received "national fanfare" through newspaper articles, ads in newspapers across the US placed by fair officials, and publicity stunts like constructing a 22 foot replica of the Washington Monument out of coins. Unfortunately the Panic of 1893 set in, and paying double face value at a time when a beer cost 5 cents made the whole thing a bit of a flop,

  Yep, aware of the Columbians. But what about the Clevelands, Cincinnatis and their ilk?

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• thefinn Posts: 2,657 ✭✭✭✭✭

  June 24, 2019 11:46AM

  Newspaper, banks or coin dealer sales brochures.
  Now everyone buys from the mint initially, but not then.

  thefinn

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• RogerB Posts: 8,852 ✭✭✭✭✭

  June 24, 2019 11:52AM

  All of the "classic commemorates" were sold by distributors/promoters/conmen and other private entities. The US Mint consistently refused to sell direct and even refused to allow members of the Assay Commission to buy coins at conclusion of the pyx event.

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• crazyhounddog Posts: 14,074 ✭✭✭✭✭

  June 24, 2019 11:52AM edited June 24, 2019 11:52AM

  Woolworth & coin shops.

  The bitterness of "Poor Quality" is remembered long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.

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• BillJones Posts: 34,891 ✭✭✭✭✭

  June 24, 2019 12:56PM

  Once the ball got rolling in the 1930s, it didn’t take much advertising to draw a collecting audience. Collectors became aware of the new coin, tried to buy them. At the worst, dealers or promoters got a hold of a substantial part of the mintage and charged premium prices. This happened with the Hudson, Cincinnati and the low mintage Boones, Oregon Trail and Texas commemoratives.

  I have seen reproductions of ads for the Gettysburg and Antietam celebrations that may have mentioned the souvenir half dollars.

  Retired dealer and avid collector of U.S. type coins, 19th century presidential campaign medalets and selected medals. In recent years I have been working on a set of British coins - at least one coin from each king or queen who issued pieces that are collectible. I am also collecting at least one coin for each Roman emperor from Julius Caesar to ... ?

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• Namvet69 Posts: 9,291 ✭✭✭✭✭

  June 24, 2019 3:31PM

  The 1892-1893 Chicago world expo gave birth to a bazillion varieties of commemorative medals. Gate numbers were around 26 million each year. I'm always on the lookout for examples. I just picked up a really nice U.S. Treasury type 1 medal. Peace Roy

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• RogerB Posts: 8,852 ✭✭✭✭✭

  June 24, 2019 6:51PM

  There were several attempts to produce a Centennial commemorative coin (or coins), but Treasury opposed all. They felt it would confuse the public - and there was already plenty of confusion from multiple new designs, metals and counterfeit "nickels."

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• Zoins Posts: 34,401 ✭✭✭✭✭

  June 24, 2019 7:01PM

  Many were distributed by a few dealers:

  From QDB's "Commemorative Coins of the United States"

  https://www.pcgs.com/books/commemoratives/chapter05/2

  Henry Chapman (of Philadelphia), the Arnold Numismatic Company (providence, Rhode Island), and B. Max Mehl (of Fort Worth, Texas) were among the most active dealers in commemoratives; but, apart from Mehl, who bought large quantities of unsold commemoratives of the new 1916-1917 McKinley gold dollar issues, most professionals maintained commemorative coins only as a small part of their normal trading stock.

  Private Mint News | 2010 Lincoln Reverse Finalists

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• ricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭

  June 25, 2019 7:22AM

  @kbbpll ..... Hey, I remember five cent beers....as a matter of fact, my Dad and I went to a local bar the last day before they raised the price of draft beer to ten cents....Darn, I am getting old... Cheers, RickO

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• Zoins Posts: 34,401 ✭✭✭✭✭

  June 25, 2019 7:26AM edited June 25, 2019 7:30AM

  @Namvet69 said:
  The 1892-1893 Chicago world expo gave birth to a bazillion varieties of commemorative medals. Gate numbers were around 26 million each year. I'm always on the lookout for examples. I just picked up a really nice U.S. Treasury type 1 medal. Peace Roy

  Agree there's an amazing number of pieces that were created for the Columbian Expo.

  @tmot99 had a great website on the Columbian Expo at http://1893columbianexpo.com but perhaps it can only now be found in the Internet Archive.

  It's sad but a large generation of Internet coin websites with lots of information is being lost.

  Not sure if there's anything the NNP can do to archive these?

  Here's one of my rare pieces for the Illinois Company made by James Murdock Jr. of Cincinnati, cataloged as Eglit-442.

  

  Private Mint News | 2010 Lincoln Reverse Finalists

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