Let's see your exonumia!

"The Sailmaker's Badge": WW1 Royal Flying Corps identity disc made from 1916 British half crown



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Host coin: 1916 Great Britain half crown, KM818.1.
Obverse: planed off and engraved "2ND A.M. / ARTHUR PERRY. / 33274 /R.F.C.".
Reverse: Original coat of arms design, unaltered.

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

A historically interesting subset within the collecting of engraved coins are the pieces that were made into identity discs ("dog tags") during the First World War, which fall under the more general category called "trench art". Often these World War I pieces were made with French silver 1- and 2-franc coins as hosts, but this example was engraved on a larger British silver coin- a 1916 half crown. Furthermore, the serviceman, 2nd Air Mechanic Arthur Perry, #33274, served with the Royal Flying Corps, the forerunner of the Royal Air Force. So this piece has a somewhat less common host coin and an early aviation provenance, which is great.

Wikipedia link: Royal Flying Corps

I am an enthusiast of "love tokens" and pieces like this because one can wistfully say, "ah, if this could only talk". Some of these engraved coins actually do talk- or at least whisper- little bits of their history.

What do we know of 2nd Air Mechanic Arthur Perry? Only a few things. He was born in London, Middlesex, England, in 1883, so he would have been about 33 years old when the coin above was minted, and no older than 35 when the engraving was done. (We can date the engraving to between 1916- the host coin's date- and 1918- when the RFC was absorbed into the RAF.) Arthur Perry married a woman named Edith in 1914 and his RFC appointment was as a sailmaker, so he would have worked on repairing the fabric that covered the aircraft of the time.

Below is a period photograph a Royal Flying Corps repair shop, from the Imperial War Museum collection. I tried finding a picture of an RFC sailmaker at work, but most of the pictures I saw of fabric-on-frame work being done was from the factories, with largely women workers. I saw some references to one IWM photo collection that sounded interesting, but it isn't online. Interestingly- but probably only coincidentally due to the spelling variance- that collection was under the name "PARRY, ARTHUR".



Thanks to @dadams for helping to refine and focus the research on this piece.

This was part of my last exonumia collection, which I recently sold to feed my primary "Box of 20" set. However, I am going to continue the exonumia collection in a slightly different way- I intend to collect holed love tokens and engraved pieces, and put them on my "Holey Coin Hat". (Which used to be the Holey Gold Hat in bygone days, but I stripped it of its gold during the recession.)

As such, I have kept this piece even after selling several other nice ones.

 

"Philodemic Society": Intaglio seal matrix carved on 1838 Coronet large cent



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Host coin: 1838 USA Coronet large cent.
Obverse: original Coronet Liberty Head design, unaltered except for traces of old mounting at center.
Reverse: intaglio carving of a Federal eagle carrying olive branch[?], with lyre and rays above, "+ + + + + Philodemica Societas ~ G [?] I [?] + + + + +" in italic script below.

Ex-"numismaniacal", eBay, 11/16/2015.

I found this piece fascinating, and liked the eagle on it. It appears to have been a hand-carved intaglio seal matrix, though I'm not sure whether it was intended to make inked impressions or wax seals for documents. I suspect the latter.

The Philodemic Society is a literary society and debating organization which was founded at Georgetown University in 1830 and is still in existence today. The seal for which the coin was carved must have been fairly early, judging from its style and the fact that the current seal of the society now appears to be different, featuring a caduceus crossed with a liberty cap on a pole. I rather prefer the eagle and lyre seen here.

I had to beat out some solid competition for this piece on eBay, but was happily able to win it for around two-thirds of the "nuclear" snipe I had set.

You must admit it's intriguing, and is quite possibly unique.



This was formerly part of my "Oddball" exonumia collection, until a friend twisted my arm hard enough to convince me to sell it to him. Still, I'm reposting some of my former pieces from that collection over here on CoinTalk.

I'm also keeping a few of the holed pieces to put on my trademark "Holey Coin Hat".

 

"Spiny Lighthouse Seascape": Pictorial love token on 1864 two-cent piece



Host coin: 1864 USA 2-cent piece.
Obverse: original shield motif, unaltered.
Reverse: seascape with lighthouse and sailboats in square frame with edge embellishments.

Ex- "fairoakscoin", eBay, 11/13/2014.

Though I had sold off my old love token collection, I continued browsing that category on eBay, and one day I spotted this one. A two-cent piece is a slightly less common host coin for a love token, and this had an appealing pictorial carving on the reverse, so I made an offer and bought it. So what if the lighthouse here looks a bit more like a sea urchin perched atop a pedestal, or a prickly pear cactus? I like it, and actually think this is a pretty well-engraved piece.

This piece, though now sold, was once part of my "Oddball" set, which was my second love token collection. I have since begun a third collection of holed love token and engraved pieces, to put on my "Holey Coin Hat".

This one was featured and illustrated prominently in the cover article about love tokens written by Tom DeLorey in the February 2016 issue of COINage magazine.

 

(Forgive me for dominating the thread and board this evening- I am transferring some of my old exonumia threads from Collectors Universe over to here. They're getting posted here but also getting their own threads as well, in case I want to link them up to my future indexes. Sorry if it's a bit much.)


"Three-Cent Chicken": Pictorial love token on 1851 silver three-cent piece



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Host coin: 1851 silver three-cent piece.
Obverse: original six-pointed star design, unaltered.
Reverse: planed off and re-engraved with image of a chicken (probably a rooster) left, with grass/foliage below, surrounded by simple lined border.

Ex-"palmislandcoinsandcurrency" (eBay), 07/09/2016.

This is a relatively simple but quite well-executed pictorial love token. It was desirable enough in that right, but since it is also on a slightly less common host coin I found it all the more desirable. As the silver three-cent piece or "trime" was the United States' smallest silver coin, they had to be a bit more difficult for engraving artists to work on. The artist here did a good job and obviously had some experience. Additionally, the 1851 date on the host coin was the first year for this type.

Though now sold, this was once part of my "Oddball Set" of exonumia.

 

"Spooky Moon Face": Unusual pictorial love token engraving on 1862 Seated Liberty half dime



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Host Coin: 1862 USA half dime.
Obverse: Seated Liberty design, unaltered.
Reverse: strange, round face with "F G D" initials and ornamental garland above, decorative carving to left and right.

Ex- "acsb-rich", eBay, 11/13/2015.

I had this piece in my eBay watchlist for a while. The weird face on it was both repellent and fascinating at the same time. One wonders what that was all about? Could it be a representation of the moon? The lettering and ornamentation were obviously done by a competent engraver, which makes the primitive aspect of the carved face all the more baffling.

Over time, I eventually decided to make an offer on it, both because I didn't yet have a Seated half dime for my love token type set, and also just... because. It is certainly odd, unusual, and unique.

I just had to have it. Can't really explain why, except it seemed perfect for an "oddball" collection like mine.

Though now sold, this was once part of my "Oddball Set" of exonumia.

 

"Relic of a Short Life": "JASPER DILDAY" love token on ca. 1867-1869 Shield nickel



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Host coin: ca. 1867-69 USA Shield nickel.
Obverse: "JASPER DILDAY" counterstamped with individual letter punches, within engraved border decorations.
Reverse: original Shield nickel design, unaltered except for possible traces of old mounting.

Ex- "acsb-rich", eBay, 11/13/2015.

Aside from Shield nickels being slightly less common host coins for love tokens, this piece is largely unexceptional, though the work on it was competent enough. I normally would not have considered it, because I prefer the host coin dates to be visible on my love tokens. However, when I noticed this piece featured both a first and last name, and a reasonably uncommon last name, I decided to try and see if I could find Jasper Dilday.

And I did!

Sources vary as to his birthyear, but he was reportedly born around 1855 and died in 1879. This is not only contemporaneous with our host coin, but also helps narrow the date of the engraving down between 1867 (since there are no rays on the reverse of the nickel) and 1879 (the year Jasper Dilday is said to have died). And though as of this writing I do not know the cause, he died young, as so many people did in the 19th century.

(Shield nickel specialist Howard, of www.shieldnickels.net, informs me that this host coin can be even more narrowly dated by the reverse hub alone. So the host coin would have been dated ca. 1867-1869 while the engraving would date ca. 1867-1879 as mentioned above, extrapolating from Jasper Dilday's death date. Thanks, Howard!)

Yes, it's possible that there was more than one Jasper Dilday, but this one seems to fit the period of this coin perfectly. I'll bet it's him.

The thing that excited me most about researching Jasper Dilday was that I found he had a memorial page on findagrave.com, and it featured his photograph!

That's when I knew I had to buy this piece!

Except for famous pedigrees, how often can we numismatists say exactly who owned a coin in our collection?

And how often does a photograph of that person survive, to let their face stare back at us from the past?

Here is Jasper Dilday himself, as a young man of around fifteen years old, circa 1870. He would have been only about 24 when he died.



Here is the information from his findagrave.com memorial page.

It seems he lived long enough to marry, but his wife Nancy also died young, only a year after he did. She would have been only 21. Perhaps it was she who gave him the coin above?

Though now sold, this was once part of my "Oddball Set" of exonumia.

 

"The Quarrelsome Dr. Prince": "Dr. Will J. Prince" engraving on 1883 Liberty nickel



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Host coin: 1883 USA Liberty nickel, reverse subtype indeterminable.
Obverse: original Liberty head design, unaltered.
Reverse: "Dr. Will J. Prince" in script lettering arranged in circular array.

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

While the lettering on this piece was done well enough, the engraving lacks any pictorial elements or particular pizzazz otherwise. Though a Liberty nickel host coin is slightly less common, they're not terribly difficult to find. Coupled with the rather stiff pricetag this had when I saw it, those factors would have normally made me move on and not buy this.

However, it had a mostly full name on it, so I thought I would see if I could track down this Dr. Will J. Prince. And I did! So I made a counteroffer, negotiated a bit with the seller , and ended up happily buying it.

My initial web searching brought up the obituary of a Dr. William J. Prince from Oklahoma (1930-2012), and others, but they were all too modern to have been the onetime owner of this coin.

Searching "Dr. Will J. Prince", however (with the abbreviated first name), I found a Dr. Will(iam) J. Prince of Piqua, Ohio (1861-1919), who was the son of another doctor by the same name. He seems to fit the time period of this love token. Is he really our man? We'll never know for sure, but I'd say there's a pretty good chance he is.

The most interesting thing about Dr. William J. Prince (II) were some of the old newspaper articles I found. He was obviously a prominent man in his community and perhaps known on the state and national level as well.

But by far the most colorful article I found was a 1904 newspaper account of a physical altercation he engaged in at City Hall with a councilman, while he was serving as president of the Board of Public Safety. (Public? Yes. Safety? Maybe not so much!) But he does seem to have come out on top in the fisticuffs!




Source link
Here is another article, this time from 1913.

It seems our good doctor had his share of friction, but perhaps that was inevitable in politics. The article linked to above is also from the Piqua, Ohio Daily Call, but the Cincinnati papers ran some articles at the time, too.

Then again, I'm not so sure the 1913 article isn't about his son, William J. Prince III. I think he (III) was a doctor as well, and the subject of this article was a nominee for Postmaster. I think I saw somewhere in W.J.P. III's obituary that he had served as a postmaster. So the 1913 article could be about the son (III) rather than the father (II). I think the father is the man who owned the love token coin above, though.

Here is Dr. Prince (II)'s 1909 biographical entry, transcribed on an Ohio historical society website.
Here is his memorial on findagrave.com, which has more family information.

Lastly, his grave marker, courtesy of researcher Jenny Brown on findagrave.com.



Though now sold, this was once part of my "Oddball Set" of exonumia.

 

I'll give y'all a break before I post the rest.

 

"Ten Cents for the Tinsmith": Trade-related folk art carving on 1853 Seated Liberty dime



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Host coin: 1853 USA Seated Liberty dime, arrows at date.
Obverse: original Seated Liberty design, unaltered, with traces of solder from an old mount. Reverse: 19th century tradesman's tools, probably for tinsmithing.

Ex- "lotsofmotts" (eBay), 7/18/2016.

Many thanks to the early respondents to this thread on Collectors Universe, who helped me identify these tools. I recognized the hammer at the bottom, of course, and the tin snips on the right. That appears to be a set of dividers on the left. That basket-like cylinder in the middle with the tray underneath it and the tool sticking into it is apparently a charcoal burner, which a tinsmith would swing around in the air when he needed to heat up the coals inside.

This interesting piece was rather modestly priced for a pictorial love token, and I suspect I only got to it because it was listed only in the eBay Seated dimes category. Had the seller also listed it under the love token category, somebody else would have probably snapped it up first.

Below: Illustration of tinsmithing tools and workshop from Diderot's Encyclopédie, ca. 1751-1772



Tinsmith (Wikipedia article)

This used to be part of my Engraved/Counterstamped/Oddball Type Set, my second exonumia collection involving engraved pieces like love tokens and such. I never settled on a title for the collection, but usually referred to it as my "Oddball" set. I sold this coin and much of the set in a late-2016 purge, but am not done collecting love tokens yet. I have enjoyed building two collections of them and actually joined the Love Token Society, which is the first time I've joined a specialist numismatic organization.