"Follow The Leader" coin thread BY THEME (for ALL types of coins, tokens, and medals)

I have never seen a modern bimetallic coin so worn! That's pretty cool looking.

 

"Weird Wellington & The Penguin Lady": Bizarre folk art carving on ca. 1811-1813 Canadian token




Host coin: Undated (ca. 1811-1813) pre-confederation Canadian halfpenny token; "Field Marshall Wellington" (Breton-971?) type, large leaves variety.
Obverse: bust of Field Marshal Wellington with front outline of profile recarved.
Reverse: seated Brittania altered into bizarre bird-headed woman with small animal inverted on her lap.

Ex-"savoyspecial", Collectors Universe, 3/19/2015.

This was a dirt-cheap impulse buy ($6) that was so bizarre I just couldn't pass it up. Courtesy of Greg Capps, aka "savoyspecial" on Collectors Universe, who made me an enthusiastic convert to the whole "graffiti coin" thing.

Boy, "Penguin Lady" is spooky, isn't she? How'd you like to run up on her in a dark alley? Brr... there's some nightmare fuel! Look at that sharp beak... those muscular arms. And that poor creature in her lap, which she appears to be... spanking? Petting? Eviscerating? And what the heck is that critter, anyway? I think I'll call it "The ArmadilloFox".

This was previously part of my Engraved/Counterstamped/Oddball Type Set. I sold it in 2016 (at a tidy profit, though still quite inexpensively).

 

Keep the worn-out and interestingly-damaged stuff comin'.

 

Ugly coin for an ugly time ... but historically interesting and a pretty cool piece.

 

A surprising detector find, considering I dug it in Asheville, North Carolina.

Tragically, I nicked the reverse with my dig knife when recovering it.

 

Some time later, I dug a 1914 Canadian large cent here on St. Simons Island, Georgia, which was tantalizingly mounted in one of those aluminum token rings like this. I say "tantalizingly" because unfortunately the aluminum ring was so horribly corroded that none of the inscriptions on it could be seen. That crumbled away shortly after I dug it, but the coin inside was in reasonably decent condition and had obviously been high grade when it was encased.

I dug a third Canadian large cent, this one a dateless Victoria, in a local park on the mainland (Brunswick, GA). That particular park produced a lot of neat old coins and tokens from the early 1900s (and some older 1700s coins found earlier by another detectorist).

Speaking of that park, and of "problem" coins, I dug one there that really had me going for a moment...

 

ca. 1300-1310 Long Cross silver penny of Edward I "Longshanks". Has a flan chip and some surface issues.

But the price was right- this was another detector find!

 

Uighuristan! Wow.

Gesundheit!

 

"Over the Garden Wall": Whimsical love token engraving on 1876 Seated Liberty dime



Larger obverse picture
Larger reverse picture

Host coin: 1876 USA Seated Liberty dime.
Obverse: original Seated Liberty design, unaltered except for some wear-related scratches.
Reverse: "OVER THE GARDEN WALL / " R (G?) E. C.", (fox? cat?) leaping over stone wall in pursuit of another animal whose tail can be seen, dog chasing bird below.

Ex- "acsb-rich", eBay, 11/25/2015.

This is a great pictorial love token, though I don't know what the "Over the Garden Wall" reference is about. The engraver, despite a folksy style, had some obvious skill. At first I thought he or she had blundered the initials, but looking more closely, it seems they're deliberately done in a "furry" font, perhaps in some further reference to animals. The seller described this vignette as a cat chasing a mouse over the wall. Cat that may be, but it also might be a fox, and the creature it is chasing (whose tail can be seen on the opposite side of the wall) certainly isn't a mouse.

Though I already had duplicate Seated dime love tokens in my type set, I couldn't resist adding this one, too. (For what it's worth, we had three dogs, eight cats, and two guinea pigs at the time I bought this, so we do like our critters, and my wife and daughter, who are normally not much impressed by coins, did appreciate this piece.)

This was formerly part of my Engraved/Counterstamped/Oddball Type Set.

 

Continue with "worn-out or damaged coins" theme, if you like, or switch to "cats and/or dogs", if you prefer.

 

Love those counterstamped cartwheels! I've seen some really neat engraved ones, too. Never managed to get one.

Here's another love token. Continue with damaged coins, or love tokens, or hats, as you prefer.