Anyone follow or collect items from the Panama Pacific International Expo?

A couple of months ago I bought an Ostrich Token off of ebay and I didn't really think much about it until I went to a Token Show this weekend in Sacramento. Anyways as I was walking the bourse I approached a seller and I was looking at their medals and what not and they had a token just like mine and I thought that's really something!! Incidentally they wanted $145 for their token and mine looks way better. :thumb: Well, tonight I was online snooping around and I found that the PPIE had an Ostrich Exhibit and they were letting people ride Ostriches, that's where the tokens came from. :yes: Just thought I'd share that information in the hopes that someone here collects PPIE stuff. The blurb below is from the site I came across along with the Ostrich Exhibit pic. Oh, and keep in mind if you have something dated 1915 and it's from California, it may have something to do with the PPIE. Hope this all made sense and if you have anything from the PPIE here's your chance to post a pic, or information.


http://www.sfimages.com/history/PPIE.html


Cawston Ostrich Farm Exhibit, P.P.I.E. 1915 Live ostriches were ridden at this exhibit on the "Zone", which included a farm in the rear. The Zone was the 3,000' long main avenue of the amusement district of the Exposition, which covered 65 acres and contained the most elaborate amusement features ever conceived. Cost of construction was $12,000,000.

 

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That's pretty neat. I live in San Diego and much of Balboa Park here was built for the Panama California Exposition, also in 1915. I'd love to find some tokens from that, since I live within walking distance of the park. Cool find!

 

That's a marvelous token.

 

That is a really neat piece, makes me want to find an example for my collection.

 

Hey friends, I know it's a long time from now but the US Mint is supposedly gonna issue some commemorative coins in 2015 as a tribute to the PPIE. Long ways, I know but I'm just sayin'. I have a few PPIE tokens and medals if y'all got any feel free to post pics. I want to get one of the half dollars but my money won't let me just yet and my money has to give me the ok before I sneak it through the wife. Here's one of my PPIE souvenirs that is approximately 1 and 3/4 across, the big one. I placed a dime in the pic just for comparison. I have a couple of smaller ones too. Post some pics friends!!. :thumb:

http://www.cointalk.com/t219929/

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1915-S-Pan-...08?pt=Coins_US_Individual&hash=item2c6cb78834

 

As you can see I am not the person who takes good pics, but I try. I'm just showing pics in the hopes that someone else pulls out some of their PPIE stuff. Here's one of the most popular medals but I forget what it's called, bronze and 1915 of course. :yes:

 

Well, it's not a coin, but here's my P.P.I.E spoon
You have some GREAT pieces Fret!

 

Here's another medal and I forget what they call this one. The PPIE was the first world's fair event in California and over a 7 month period they had 20,000,000 guests. That's a whole lotta people and it gave the city of San Francisco alot of revenue to help the city completely dig itself out of the debt that was accumulated from the Earthquake of 1906. Couple more medals and coins on the bay.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=panama+pacific+international+expo&_osacat=11116&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0&_nkw=panama+pacific+international+exposition&_sacat=11116

 

You lucky devil! I'm a displaced San Diego native (P.B./La Jolla) and spent my childhood riding buses to the Zoo, and Balboa park. That was late 1940's thru High School ('58). I miss that place (and The Presidio) more than anything except maybe warm salt water. To have it within a walk would be so fine...Sigh.

 

Great stuff fretboard: whimsical, unusual pieces. Keep it coming!

 

There have been other World's Fairs that have been highly successful and people still collect coins, medals or tokens from the events and other memorabilia as well. In 1893 there was the Colombian World's Fair, there was the Seattle World's Fair in 1962, New York World's Fair in 1939 and in 1933 Chicago had their Century of Progress which was highly successful and still has many followers. Post your medals or tokens from any state or city. Coins and medals are at the forefront in these venues and learning a bit about these Fairs may get you some extra money one of these days, you never know. Here's a few pics of different events, in hopes that someone else will post pics too.

 

Here's a couple more...

 

Ok, here's the last of my small collection. :thumb:

 

And then there were a couple more...

 

And that's it for me. :yes: Oh and the car of my dreams, that would make a sweet lookin' low rider but I think I'd have to leave it stock.

 

My great great grandmother was a well known socialite in that era, and attended the fair at Angel Island in 1915. Curiously despite a nearly hundred years later, I have quite a bit of her stuff including some of the medals she picked up. I wish she had bought one of the commemorative coins though. I have most of her stuff like that in the SDB and haven't photographed it.

 

Great! Once you get some pics taken we'd really like to see them, the medals and tokens were very nicely done and there are many designs that were minted . In 2015 the US Mint is gonna commemorate the event and reproduce the coinage, I haven't read much about it but I am thinking that once the new coins become available the old coins (1915) will go up in price. That's one of the reasons I want to get me one of the half dollars. Besides, there were only 27,000 and change sold, 60,000 were minted but most were later smelted down because they didn't sell. Here's a pic of one for sale on feebay, $695 obo, I gotta find one for a bit less. :yes: Hopefully later this year I'll be able to get one. :thumb: Oh here's a pic of a one dollar gold coin, asking price on feebay is $2300, with free delivery of course. Wow, what a beauty and it's an MS66, that is super rare!! :thumb:

http://www.coinsite.com/content/commemoratives/Pan-PacHalf.asp


http://news.coinupdate.com/bills-seek-panama-pacific-exposition-centennial-commemorative-coins-1532/