Let's see your exonumia!

Discussion in 'Coin Chat' started by Detecto92, Mar 21, 2012.

  1. DonnaML

    DonnaML Well-Known Member

    Do American political tokens count as exonumia for purposes of this thread? Here's a 32 mm. brass token issued in 1932 for FDR's first election campaign. It's not in great condition, but that's irrelevant to me, because it belonged to my father, who was 12 years old in 1932. (I also have his Al Smith pinback button from 1928.)

    FDR Lucky Tillicum brass token 1932 Obv..jpg

    FDR Lucky Tillicum brass token 1932 Rev..jpg

    Does anyone know if there's a safe way to clean it up a bit?
     
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  3. Jwt708

    Jwt708 Well-Known Member

    @DonnaML yes, political tokens fit into the category of exonumia and are appropriate here.
     
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  4. willieboyd2

    willieboyd2 First Class Poster

    I have a similar Roosevelt token but it has a dirigible on the reverse also.

    [​IMG]
    Franklin D. Roosevelt "Lucky Tillicum" Coin - US Capitol and Dirigible
    Brass, 32 mm, 12.86 gm

    Obverse:
    Franklin D. Roosevelt facing left.
    LUCKY TILLICUM / REBUILD WITH ROOSEVELT
    Reverse:
    United States Capitol building and Dirigible flying
    UNITED STATES CAPITOL

    The dirigible is probably the US Navy rigid airship USS Akron which was built by the Goodyear-Zeppelin company and launched in 1931.
     
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  5. DonnaML

    DonnaML Well-Known Member

    Maybe the one on mine exploded. There's definitely something going on in that area of the token.
     
  6. willieboyd2

    willieboyd2 First Class Poster

    The two Roosevelt-Capitol tokens are different in other ways.

    Mine has a horizontal line under the capitol building and a different font for "UNITED STATES CAPITOL".

    :)
     
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  7. DonnaML

    DonnaML Well-Known Member

    Here's a case holding a lot of my political exonumia. The top couple of rows consist mostly of 19th century presidential campaign tokens. You can't really see what they are in this photo, so I will try sometime to take closeup photos of both sides of them.

    The first Al Smith button with his photo on it, most of the FDR material, and the Truman, Stevenson, Kennedy, and LBJ buttons were my father's.

    Political Medals case 1.jpg
     
    Last edited: Mar 30, 2020
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  8. lowle harrison

    lowle harrison Well-Known Member

     
  9. Circus

    Circus Tokens Only !! TEC#4981

  10. ldhair

    ldhair Clean Supporter

  11. lowle harrison

    lowle harrison Well-Known Member

    @Circus You tell me....are all of these trade tokens being sold by the score made of aluminum authentic? Many sellers tout dates from the late 1800's and beyond. Aluminum didn't really become a material for utilitarian objects until really the 40's. The Aluminum Association wasn't founded until 1935. How did all of these alum. tokens allegedly 110 years old hold up like practically new considering the environmental elements they must have been around? Here's 2 from my latest acquisition, one alum. the other copper. Are we being duped with Chinese made aluminum bu****t? https://www.aluminum.org/aluminum-advantage/history-aluminum 20200331_052910.jpg
     
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  12. Circus

    Circus Tokens Only !! TEC#4981

    First thing is sellers of the flea-bay and other site may know nothing about the age of the token. I would have to say that any or most aluminum tokens date from the early 1900/190* when it came down in price to produce.
    It became a favorite of the do die work due to it had cheaper production costs, dies lasted longer, you didn't need to have harder face dies, no annealing of the blanks, and higher speeds of stamping. There are few high dollar tokens made from aluminum. also look at the CW's and HT's tokens I know little about either but I haven't seen many/any of either, out of aluminum.
    Counterfeiting is generally low investment high dollar return The good for and other tokens from that time period, aren't High dollar or high sellers. As the collecxtors for them are thinning out at a rapid rate.
    Most younger people could care less, If they have an interest all they do is google images and they will get all they want for free. As with most collectibles the numbers of collectors is down and prices depressed. case in point my father collected placte bocks and full sheets of stamps. Had $1,000 up of them prices are down anybody still buying with the large stamp house and their 1,000's of sheets.
    25% of face value is the lowest and 30% the highest I have found. The is a ready market for stamp on flea-bay for those prices for postage. Which I am currently using them for The owner of this site also has a stamp forum which I'm a member which I posted some interesting items. I haven't started selling them yet.

    The other reason for aluminum was a lot of the billiard table makers payed for the tokens of the saloons and parlors.
    maybe Harley and others came chime in on the subject, along with a mod splitting this off into it's own thread.
     
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  13. longnine009

    longnine009 Darwin has to eat too. Supporter

    J.A Coleman Jr. Good for 25c Hardeeville S.C
    aluminum, thin planchet, 2.0 grams, 28.5mm, rotated 90 degrees, Chibbaro Hard-3

    Hardeeville today is small town near Hilton head and the S.C and Ga. border. J.A (James Amascus) Coleman Jr. operated a Naval Stores business from the late 1910's until the late 1920's. He also owned a general store where his Naval Stores employees used the tokens. Ref: Tony Chibbaro--Numismatics of South Carolina Merchant Trade Tokens

    For those unfamiliar with the term Naval Stores, they were materials derived from pine trees and used on wooden ships. For example tar, derived by intense heat to pine logs was used to waterproof ships ropes. Pitch derived from cooking off the water in tar was used to fill the gaps in ships planks. Tar and pitch production in North Carolina is how the name Tar heels came about. Turpentine was distilled from pine resin also called gum and was used in paints and varnishes. A by product of turpentine distillation, besides camp explosions and fires, was rosin. Rosin has strong gripping properties. Baseball players use it and fiddle players "rosin up the bow." Naval Stores was a huge business in the 1800's into the early 1900's. Some people in the Southeast spent their entire lives, from child to elder, "gathering gum" from pine trees.

    20200331_035534.jpg 20200331_035626.jpg
     
  14. Jwt708

    Jwt708 Well-Known Member

    @lowle harrison I disregard most info an eBay seller has about a token unless I know the seller.
     
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  15. DonnaML

    DonnaML Well-Known Member

    Some more political exonumia.

    A silk campaign ribbon for Grover Cleveland, precise year unknown:

    Grover Cleveland ribbon jpg.jpg

    An official Harry S. Truman Inaugural Medal, 1949:

    Harry S. Truman Inaugural Medal Obv..jpg

    Harry Truman inaugural medal Rev..jpg

    An official John F. Kennedy Inaugural Medal, 1961:

    John F. Kennedy inaugural medal Obv..jpg

    JFK Inaugural Medal Rev..jpg
     
    Last edited: Mar 31, 2020
  16. lowle harrison

    lowle harrison Well-Known Member

    @Jwt708 I do too but as a re-seller it makes my job that much more difficult when the consinces amoung buyers is that everything they buy from that category is 100% real and then up comes a toke like the Hardeeville above with a nicely appropriate amount of wear IMO, then I have to generally go on the defensive about some I sell that look BU. The learning curve for customers is going to happen SO fast(glue-tube) that as a responsible seller I feel it necessary to give some education out myself which in my game time is money and defending takes time. Here's some exo I always love finding and one that, well I guess COULD be exo depending on how the graded coin fiasco treated ya last year....
     

    Attached Files:

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  17. DonnaML

    DonnaML Well-Known Member

    And here are closer-up photos of the obverses and reverses of the old political tokens that I keep in the display case I posted yesterday:

    Misc. Political Tokens Obv..jpg

    Misc Political Tokens Rev..jpg

    First row, left to right:

    1. Undated, Obv. Bust of Andrew Jackson, three-quarters right, "Genl. Andrew Jackson"/ Rev. "Hero of New Orleans,"

    2. 1840, Obv. Bust of William Henry Harrison, left, "Maj. Gen. W.H. Harrison - 1841[sic]"/Rev. Eagle, "Go It Tip - Come It Tyler"

    3. 1840, Obv. Bust of William Henry Harrison, left, "Maj. Gen. W.H. Harrison - Born Feb. 9, 1773"/ Image of Log Cabin, "The People's Choice - The Hero of Tippecanoe"

    4. 1864? Obv. Bust of Lincoln, right /Rev. Bust of ?, right

    5. 1864, Obv. Bust of Lincoln, right "1864"/ Rev. Eagle, "Lincoln and Union"

    6. 1864, Obv. Bust of Lincoln, left, "1864"/ Rev. "O.K."

    Second Row, left to right:

    7. 1864, Obv. Bust of McClellan, three-quarters right, "Maj. Gen. McClellan"/ Rev. Eagle, "One Flag and One Union, Now and Forever"

    8. 1868, Obv. Bust of Grant, three-quarters right, "General U.S. Grant - 1868"/ Rev. "I Propose To Fight It Out In This Line If It Takes All Summer"

    9. 1872, Obv. Bust of Greeley, right, "The Sage of Chappaqua - H.G. Greeley"/ Rev. Eagle, "Greeley Brown & Amnesty - 1872"

    10. 1880, Obv. Jugate Busts of Garfield & Arthur, left/ Rev. Shield in center w/bar across saying "Union"; "J.A. Garfield - C.A. Arthur"

    11. 1884, Obv. Jugate Busts of Cleveland & Hendricks, right/ Rev. Fasces with Ax in center, "Cleveland & Hendricks on a Broad Platform - Good Planks Will Lead All to Victory - 1884"

    Third Row, Left to Right

    12. 1884, Obv. Jugate Busts of Blaine & Logan, left/ Rev. Shield in center w/bar across saying "Union"; "The Republicans Have Ruled Since 1860 And With Blaine & Logan Are Good For Another Term"

    13. 1888, Obv. Bust of Benj. Harrison, three-quarters left, "Gen. Benjamin Harrison - 1888" / Rev. "Republican Candidate For President"

    14. 1888? Pinback Button with photo of Grover Cleveland

    15. Undated, Obv. Bust of Bryan, left, "Wm. J. Bryan"/ Rev. Blank with Wreath

    16. 1904, Obv. Bust of Alton B. Parker, three-quarters left, "For President Alton B. Parker - 1904"/Rev. Bust of Theodore Roosevelt, three-quarters left, "For President Theodore Roosevelt - 1904"
     
    Last edited: Mar 31, 2020
  18. Jwt708

    Jwt708 Well-Known Member

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  19. DonnaML

    DonnaML Well-Known Member

    Thanks. Political exonumia and other memorabilia probably constitute my fourth-level collection behind antiquities, ancient coins, and historical/commemorative/art medals, but I'm still very fond of it, because the core of it consists of materials that belonged to my father.

    By the way, I like your avatar -- I have an example of that M. Sergius Silus denarius, and it's one of my favorite Republican coins.
     
  20. Jwt708

    Jwt708 Well-Known Member

    Thanks, here's my ancient Rambo in all it's glory (if you haven't seen it already):

    JWT 166 Silus Horseman.jpg

    And to keep things legitimate...

    Here are tokens from bases in France:
    FR50b Chateauroux AB 5c.jpg FR110a Dreux AB 5c.jpg FR210b Everux AB 25c.jpg FR280b Laon AB 50c.jpg FR300c Laon AB 25c.jpg FR390 Phalsbourg AB 5c.jpg
     
  21. BRandM

    BRandM Counterstamp Collector

    Great write up, longnine. Always nice to know the history behind a token in your collection.

    I never knew what Naval Stores were but now I do. Thanks

    Bruce
     
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