Hello everyone! Does anyone here have their own business tokens/personal tokens? I am planning on having dies made to have my own "hard times" good for one cent tokens just as a novelty. These will be struck on cent planchets as well as in .999 silver. I got a couple from David Khan at the FUN show, and they are pretty cool. My design would include a capped bust dime portrait. Would like to see some of your business tokens if you have any, for fun or maybe just for inspiration.
I have made some for people and now that I have my new (to me) coin press up and running, I will be making more.
Another CT member sent me these from his business. I also have a few more from other members but no photos of them. Wooden Nickels were used for all of them.
I didn’t strike any pieces (though I think that would be cool), I did have a coupe thousand wooden nickels made many years ago that look suspiciously like those in a previous post..... I thought it was a great novelty. My sales guys thought they were lame and I never got the traction from them that I had hoped for. It wasn’t a big expense..... I only say this because I suspect that striking a marketing piece would be costly. I would hate to see you sink a lot of expense into something that didn’t give you some reward in return...... It beats the year I bought baseball caps though. A TV news guy interviewed somebody in an unemployment line. The fellow being interviewed was wearing my ballcap!
Made my own hard times token, 1/2 cent. Had to learn how to etch the dies, make the blanks and bought a 50 ton press, made a rig, and then minted a big pile of them. https://www.cointalk.com/threads/bona-fide-hard-times-token.357263/
Hi, thank you for your response. Not sure why I didn't see it a year ago. Those tokens are awesome. It's cool that you were able to engrave the dies and everything too. I am now at the point where I am just about ready to have the dies made for my tokens. The obverse will have a Capped bust design and the reverse will have the Mexican eagle from the first republic 1 reale. Planning on pressing it using filed penny planchets, which is easy now that I have a grindstone. I will also try to make some silver ones which might be hard as I will have to shape the planchets myself. Can't wait to have them in hand and probably try to sell a few. Then again it's more just for fun than profit, I would be surprised to break even.
That is actually what I am doing now. Originally I made an attempt to make 2.5-3g planchets and they ended up looking more like cobs as I couldn't get them perfectly round. Also I initially had some trouble finding them at a decent price. A lot of the stores I looked at were asking huge premiums.
I just make a punch and die set for the size blank I need and cut blanks from sheet stock. If I want to overstrike an already struck coin, I make a blank die and collar set and flatten the coin this way so that it stays round.
What do you do with the left over silver webbing? Looks like you can get a manual rolling mill for under $200 so I guess you could melt the scrap down, cast it into some ingots and roll it out again into new sheet.
I don't have webbing. I took chunks of .999 silver cut from fractional bars and hammered them down until they were about the diameter of a dime. Then I used a 19mm washer to hammer them in and shape out the planchets. It was just a small cheap experiment, unfortunately the planchets aren't perfectly round and flat. Though they do look extremely similar to hammered medieval coinage/cob reales. I ordered a ton of copper planchets and I will order silver ones once the dies ship. My friend said he wanted to buy the "cob" ones once I strike them. I wonder how they will turn out.
I actually tried making my own dies with a dremel a long time ago. Did not work at all, I think the design was too shallow. It does seem like a very hard thing to master, especially when trying to replicate the engravery the Romans, Greeks, etc did. I just don't have the resources/time/experience to make my own dies. St Augustine mint on IG and YouTube does it very well.
a $200 rolling mill is going to be a disappointment, don't waste your money. for silver, I either do as you said, melt, cast, and roll out, or I just sell it back to my local coin dealer and get nice fresh bars. the small monetary loss is worth the time savings to me. I ordered a ton of copper planchets and I will order silver ones once the dies ship. My friend said he wanted to buy the "cob" ones once I strike them. I wonder how they will turn out.[/QUOTE] Where did you order your blanks from? Sometimes it's nice not to have to make them. I make dies using whatever tools are at hand, punches, hand gravers, hammer and chisel, rotary for bulk material removal, and a pantograph for nice, crisp lettering. My avatar is a die I completely hand cut for Tom Maringer at the Shire Post Mint, it is part of the Game of Thrones coin series he sells.
Where did you order your blanks from? Sometimes it's nice not to have to make them. I make dies using whatever tools are at hand, punches, hand gravers, hammer and chisel, rotary for bulk material removal, and a pantograph for nice, crisp lettering. My avatar is a die I completely hand cut for Tom Maringer at the Shire Post Mint, it is part of the Game of Thrones coin series he sells.[/QUOTE] I got the copper planchets from an etsy store that was selling them for 50c apiece. A little pricier than what I initially wanted to pay, but I figured it's much easier than the labor it takes to grind and polish penny planchets. The only tool I have from that list is the hammer, lol. I have always wanted to get into hobo nickel carving, whenever I get to that it should be easier to make dies. Though I have no idea where to get the iron/steel rods.
I never sold any of my coins, I leave them in the leave a penny take a penny tray in different places or just drop them here and there for someone to find.
