I purchased the pictured token earlier this year because it brings together two areas that especially interest me: coin-dealer memorabilia and World’s Fair related items. It also came with an old envelope, another detail that immediately appealed to me. I won it on eBay for the opening bid of $10.99 with free shipping, and when it arrived, I was pleased to find that it looked even better in hand than it had in the photographs. Even so, it was a modest purchase, so I filed it away in my token and medal albums. Last month, while assembling a submission for ANACS, I needed a fifth item and this token caught my eye again. I added it to the submission, and to my surprise, the graders appreciated it as much as I did: it came back graded MS66. Commemorative issue: New York World's Fair Obverse: Bust of George Washington surrounded by text. Script: Latin Lettering: 1789 1ST PRESIDENT, U.S.A. 1797 GEORGE WASHINGTON Reverse Script: Latin Lettering: VISIT THE WORLDS FAIR NEW YORK 1939 Stacks Dealers in Coins 32 W. 46TH ST NEW YORK, N.Y. Edge: Plain Mint: Osborne Coinage, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States (1835-date) Composition: Aluminum Weight: 2.8 g Diameter: 29 mm Accompanied by a vintage Numismatic Gallery envelope from 42 East 50th Street, New York. Stack’s was founded in 1933, making this token an artifact from very early in the firm’s history. Based on available information, the company operated at the 32 West 46th Street address from 1939 to 1946, so the token may have been produced in part to promote that relatively new location. I have not been able to locate a mintage figure for these tokens, though I suspect the survival rate is relatively low. Even in an MS66 holder, however, the market value is likely modest. For comparison, I recently saw an attractive ungraded example listed on eBay for $49.99—nearly five times the price I paid.
That envelope has the old postal code on it ("New York 22"), so it predates ZIP codes, and is thus pre-1963.
I think I still have some mint, unused plate blocks of the old 3-cent stamps commemorating the 1939 World's Fair. I'll look for them and send some your way if I can find them and if you want them. I bought a huge lot of old mint 3c stamps a while back and was using them for postage, to jazz up some of my envelopes. But though that's fun to do, it's a ton of work (and takes a ton of 3c stamps, LOL), and it's easier to just use click-and-ship for postage nowadays.
