It's Halloween! Post your macabre tokens and medals
DCW
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Here is an interesting medal from World War I.
1916 Irish Easter Uprising by Walter Eberbach, Germany. 69mm, cast iron. Frankenhuis 1495
Eberbach produced a series of very disturbing medals during the First World War that he called "Totentanz," or "Dance of the Dead." These included a skeleton pumping blood over the battlefield in Verdun, grimacing over the sinking Lusitania in the Atlantic, and sitting over the Earth sprinkling death to all.
The artist famously wrote, "I want whoever holds the pieces in their hands years later to be overcome by the shudder grimness." I believe he achieved the desired effect!
The above piece commemorates the Easter Uprising in Ireland which took place in Dublin from April 24-30th, 1916. Death, holding some flowers, smokes a pipe from a gravestone that reads "Home Rule R.I.P." The reverse has a shovel stabbing through a Celtic harp addressed to the man who quelled the insurrection. "To General Maxwell," it reads... "Ireland's gravedigger."
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
Comments
@DCW That is a fascinating piece! I assume it's rare, I've never seen anything like it.
I have a Thomas Paine hangman's "End of Pain" token but I cannot find the photos.
I did pick this 1939 Ouija board at an estate sale a few weeks back.
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Yes, very rare! This is one of two or three I've seen. It's certified NGC MS64, and it looks like it could have gone higher.
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
May or may not be what you're looking for in this post.
*Mourning Tokens:
1893 Columbian Half Dollar.
Billie lived for less than 5 months.
No Date - New Orleans Mint Quarter Dollar.
Shire Post Mint, copper version:
Not frightening designs but I imagine these undertakers got a lot of business during the Civil War.
Coins are Neato!
"If it's a penny for your thoughts and you put in your two cents worth, then someone...somewhere...is making a penny." - Steven Wright
My current "Box of 20"
This is a real “Monster” medal:
Here’s a story from last Halloween: One of the kids that came to our house was a boy about five years old, wearing a pirate costume with one of those black three-cornered hats. My wife answered the door, saw him, and thought he so cute. She then asked him, “So where are your Buccaneers?” He answered, “Under my buckin’ hat!”
Steve
My collecting “Pride & Joy” is my PCGS Registry Dansco 7070 Set! Winner of the 2026 PCGS Registry Award for “The Best U.S. Type Set”!
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/type-sets/design-type-sets/complete-dansco-7070-modified-type-set-1796-date/publishedset/213996
I forgot this classic.
Not exactly a token or medal, but these two bronzes are from the Moonlight Mint.
I have both these "Fallen Angel" designs, but these photos are from the MM website.
This is a WWII French anti-German medal. (There was also a similar one produced during WWI).
I have one somewhere but this a photo from an auction house.
I have always wanted to acquire this Medusa "Hobo Nickel" type. I'll have to settle for the image.
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DeWitt-Sullivan C 1861-13
The Simplon.
The monstrous Simplon Pass through the Swiss Alps. Napoleon ordered a military road capable of moving heavy cannon built from France to Italy - note the tiny army moving through the pass.
Frightening!
Superb collections are built more by omission than by addition.
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For Halloween, I used to give 1oz copper rounds like this one to select trick-or-treaters.
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anyone giving out coins instead of candy?
That's interesting!!! I've seen so many birth and love tokens how could it have never occurred to be to have mourning ones... Thanks for sharing