Let's see your exonumia!

The G. Morgan Sc. on your medal is the same George Morgan who designed the Morgan Dollar Wehwalt. This piece, apparently, dates to 1873 or 1874, a couple of years before Morgan came to the U.S. He copied the bust of the Prince of Wales from a sculpture by Sir Joseph Edward Boehm. Please look closely to see if there's a small "Boehm" somewhere at the base of portrait. Very nice medal, but I wonder what became of the reverse. Almost looks like someone tried to make a button or pin out of it. What a shame!

Bruce

 

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Here you go, some of the interesting sites.
http://www.medalcollectors.org/
http://www.tokenandmedal.org/
http://www.vecturist.com/
http://tokencollectors.org/

 

Thanks for the info, and Merry Christmas! I am almost certain that it was struck uniface in this manner, there's no indication of any sort of reverse design. I'm thinking it was designed to be screwed into the wall as a sort of seal, remember it just says "President" without saying what the prince was president of. I am glad to have an early Morgan piece and will upload it to Wikipedia to illustrate his article (which I haven't worked on). I have Karen Lee's book based on Morgan's sketchbook, and looked through it to no avail.

No sign of a Boehm, and I examined it very carefully.

Above please find a coffee plantation token I picked up in Costa Rica some years ago (I think I bought seven of various designs and sold about four on eBay, which paid for the ones I kept). This is an identical or close to it on both sides, but notice the rather dramatic die crack on the "reverse", which is clearer on the actual piece. Also, it is neither coin nor medal alignment, but the reverse is rotated about 45% from the obverse. The coiner was clearly being paid for results!

 

George T. Morgan-BHM 2964 (1873) and BHM 2992 (1874). The busts are somewhat different and "Boehm" appears only on the truncation of the 1874 medal.




http://uspatterns.com/georgetmorgan.html

 

Interesting, thanks. Pity to lose that beautiful reverse design! Still, at ten pounds after bargaining, I think I got my money's worth.

These are actually cupronickel, sorry about the color. Most likely issued by the line when the Ike dollar started to get, if not scarce, then not available readily from the Fed. I do go on Princess every now and then and I've never seen these or similar in use, you use your cruise card to gamble in the slot machines (which I do not). I'll have to glance at the table games to see if there are metallic $1 chips, or .50 for that matter. I know Holland America was still using quarter-equivalent tokens in their machines as of 2011. The "Pacific Princess" referred to on the obverse, is of course the famous Love Boat. They still run a "Pacific Princess" but it was built in 1998. It has many more balconies than the ships featured. And I've never seen a captain in shorts.

 

I have about 20 of these with different designs. I think the program was called Great works of art. Nothing special, just silver value.

 

The hand of George T. Morgan may even be on a postage stamp. Sometime around 2000, Rare Coin Review had a picture of a postage stamp that looked an aweful lot like Anna Williams.

 

Hope all of you had a good holidays, who were observing it. Resuming with a medal for the 1862 Crystal Palace Exposition, about 50mm in white metal (i.e., not silver). I have I think three for this exposition, of which one is a Prince Albert mourning medal as well. Both sides signed by notable French sculptors. According to Sir John Craig's book on the history of the Royal Mint, there wasn't much love in official circles for engravers at the time.

 

Getting back to the non-coin stuff, here is a "decimal ready reckoner" from the late 1960s to help out those who just couldn't figure out how much 38p was in old money.

 

I need one of those "reckoners" when I'm working on my Irish counterstamps.

Love the Crystal Palace medal. Very impressive at 50mm and in white metal no less. I always liked medals or tokens in white metal or another "off" composition.

Bruce

 

Here's another trade token that probably has an error in spelling. The name "O'Brein" should probably be spelled "O'Brien" but no one seems to know for sure. The partners operated a pool hall in Palmer, Iowa. The reverse is hard to read but is the mark of the token maker...A.E.Schmidt Co. of St. Louis, MO. This one is listed on tokencatalog.com as TC-17552. They offer no history on the piece and I wasn't able to find any history on them either.

Bruce

 

Oops, I forgot the picture.

 

I'll post some more tomorrow.

Here's a recent item from the Matthew Boulton bicentennial (of his death). I wrote his Wikipedia article so was anxious to visit Soho House when I got to the UK. I don't own the numismatic items in the article, I arranged for donation of images from specialists. The reverse is patterned after the 1797 cartwheel issued by Boulton.

 

This is (I assume) an admission medal (tickets are lighter) from a health/sanitary exposition in Brussels in 1876. Possibly there should be a name in the midst of the blank space on the reverse. It's about 58mm and is bronzed.

 

One of a small number of Central African ashtrays I bought. Only two of them are numismatic, this and a similar coin one, also with a 1966 Zambian coin, but a different shape on the ashtray. Some of the ones not with coins are stamped "Rhodesia".

 

Here's a couple new interesting pieces.

 

The Fox's Casino is one of my favorite Civil War tokens kookoo. I love the die work on it and the interesting spelling of "Chesnut" St. While the "correct" spelling is "Chestnut" of course it wasn't unusual to see it spelled either way in those days. I guess the shorter version was easier to fit on a token or medal. I don't know who cut the dies, but would like to. Great set of tokens!

Bruce

 

I was trying to read the inscription (maker's mark) on the bottom of your ashtray Wehwalt, but can only see the word "copperware". Can you see what the rest says?

Bruce

 

Here is a brass daguerrian from M.A. Root listed as PA-431, from approximately 1860 or so. Found in a bargain bin for less than $15.

 

"KWACHA COPPERWARE ZAMBIA". There is a large K in center of logo.