These are some of the more interesting and substantial souvenir exonumia of the early 20th century: pewter medals that borrow devices from the Buffalo Nickel. They all measure around 2 1/2 inches in diameter, but the weights vary considerably, from 110 to 145 grams. Nobody seems to know who made them, but they commemorated various tourist attractions. Here are three state park Lucky Nickels... Sometimes they're dated, but the dated ones that I've seen are all in the teens and early 20s. The color suggests to me that they are made of the traditional lead-based pewter alloy. (Modern pewter replaces the lead with antimony.) Sometimes they are "silvered" with a metal that obviously isn't silver as it doesn't tarnish... All the above medals commemorate something "Out West," but here's a souvenir of Washington DC... I wish I had more information on these - at least which company made them. There is no indication on the medals themselves. A search of the ANA library comes up with only one book, and I found one on Amazon for cheap so we'll see if the author has anything to say about these... Do any of y'all have these? I've seen them more often in antique malls rather than coin shops. They may have originally been sold as paperweights rather than medals.
I am fascinated with these and have a couple that might be rather scarce to rare. I am close to having about 20 at this point. I don't want to hijack the thread posting them but my favorite and probably most valuable is this Buffalo Bill Lucky Penny example. At least to me, it's my favorite. Saw a lucky nickel version once but never saw another of this. (I have posted it elsewhere I'm sure)
