Let's see your exonumia!

Nice pieces Circus! The Bud token should bring a smile to a lot of guy's faces. Since I'm not a beer drinker --- I have other "bad" habits --- my favorite is the bank's encased cent. You gotta love the slogan "Who says we never give free samples?".

Bruce

 

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This 1786 Spanish 1-Real is stamped with the mark of silversmith John Staniford who practiced in Windham, CT from 1760 until about 1793. The last two or three years he was in a partnership with Alfred Elderkin trading as Staniford & Elderkin.
For unknown reasons he decided to open a tavern and inn about 1794 and abandon the silversmith trade. He operated his new business on Windham Green in Windham until his death in 1811.

Staniford was born in Ipswich, MA sometime in May, 1737 to Thomas Staniford and Sarah Burnham. He married Jerusha Stoughton on July 5, 1760 and would later (1765) have a daughter with her named Mary. There is some evidence that he also had a son (John Jr.?) who later continued operation of the inn after his death. Staniford passed away on August 12, 1811 and was buried in Windham Center Cemetery.

I think this is an important early American silversmith's counterstamp. Pre-19th century examples are rare, this one even more so because it's struck on a Spanish 1-Real. The denomination circulated very little in America unlike the 2-Reales and higher value Spanish coins. The stamp is easy to date as well. The wear pattern of the coin, counterstamp and even the hole are consistent, so it would have been stamped and holed between 1786 (date of the coin) and 1790/91 when Staniford abandoned his independent practice and partnered with Alfred Elderkin. It's at least interesting to speculate that John Staniford himself may have carried or wore it as a personal "pocket piece". Presently, this mark is unlisted by Brunk.

Bruce

 

"You da man" Bruce. Info like that is
why exonumia has got SOUL.

 

Agreed longnine. I love the history surrounding these pieces. They're difficult to research at times, especially on something this old, but always worth the effort.

Bruce

 

Exonumia is not my main numismatic interest, but I do have 2 rather specialized interest. Exonumia that I made, and exonumia from the minting industry. In the 2 pics one shows a small sampling of exonumia I have made over the years, and the second is minting industry samples and store cards I have collected while working in the trade. It was quite fun digging all of this stuff out again.

 

Very impressive display Sean. Is there anyway you could show us pics of some of your favorite pieces? I'd particularly like to see the some of the ones you've made. BTW, what is your main numismatic interest? Thanks.

Bruce

 

Bruce:

Wonderful pickup

 

I picked up these two Civil War tokens in the 9/6/2014 Heritage Long Beach Auction. The first is a store card for the pharmacist Thomas Brimelow (died in 1916 at the age of 80). The second is a patriotic token with a typo (BY instead of BE) -- and with a very strong strike for the issue. Both tokens have what I considered to be great eye appeal and some lovely toning. Sorry for the scuffed slabs...they came that way and I had no luck buffing them out.

 

Great looking CWT's brg! Great strikes, great toning and an interesting misspelling. I love the pieces that show die sinker errors (also "spoot" instead of "spot"), shattered dies, overstrikes, etc. It adds interest to the coin or token. I f you have more you would like to show please do so.

Bruce

 

Bruce,
My main interest is world circulating coins and currency from c.1800 - date. It is a never ending project.
My favorite(s). I have made so many things it is really hard. But I think the coolest project I ( with my then business partner Timothy Grat) ever made were commemorative reproductions of the California 1852 Humbert octagonal $50 gold slugs made with gold from bars salvaged from the S.S. Central America that were assayed by Augustus Humbert. We parted off the face of the bars with the historical markings to save them (as per the clients request). The gold was then re-alloyed to the original .877 fine. We made 400-ish of them with the exact same weight, fineness and size. I attached a pic of a copper trial strike as I did not get the opportunity to get a gold one.
The most common thing I made were a gazillion Chuck E. Cheese Tokens. I also threw in a pierced token progressive strip as that is another really cool project I worked on. The most prestigious ones were the official inaugural medals for Clintons first term (4" silver in the pic), and medallions for the ANA. The largest ( I was project manager) was a 100Kg fine silver blank for a European mint that they in turn made into a Mandella medal, (see attached pics). While I did not put the image on the medal, I did make the blank so I guess that counts. By the way just for a size reference, that is a 1 Oz round blank in the pic with the large blank. And the most personal were the 1 Oz rounds I made for my dad when he became an American Legion Post Commander.
That is just a small group of my "favorites" that I have made. And I still make more every day, mostly bullion for now, but new product lines are being developed.

 

Beautiful work Sean! I love the Humbert $50 slug reproduction. Thanks for showing it.

Bruce

 

Hi Bruce, thanks for the kind words. I do have 3 more CWTs that I picked up on my road trip last week. I'll try to photograph them and post sometime in the next couple days.

Brandon

 

Thanks Brandon. Looking forward to seeing them.

Bruce

 

Ok, here are the other three I picked up last week.

1) NGC got the 208 obverse die attribution wrong, as they called it 207. I didn't care about their mis-attribution all that much, as the token speaks for itself. The eye appeal was off the charts, and this one just glows in hand. Also, the 410 reverse die usually doesn't come this nicely struck up, so that was a big plus also.



2) The 442 "NEW YORK" reverse die strike is weak, but I particularly liked the misaligned reverse die and the overall eye appeal of the token otherwise. Also, given the price I paid for this one at $60, I'd buy CW tokens of this caliber all day long.



3) The D.L. Wing store card is undergraded in my opinion by 2 points, and it has great eye appeal. I also liked the centering-dot and the "UNION FLOUR" theme on the reverse (store card die #1372).


Cheers,
-Brandon

 

Two more from the 1976 year of the token and medals!

 

Are they from the Franklin Mint?? I have a set packed in my bank deposit box I haven't checked or opened in a long time. Top coin is the one I recall being one of 10 or 14 Silver rounds.

 

They are aluminum and were loose in the bargain counter just picked the up last week. Life has been getting in the way of finding much out!

 

Okay?
Franklin Mint could made a few metals types. Everyone was making a lot of coinage to sell for bicentennial celebration

 

Yes they do, aluminum,bronze,copper silver and gold ones what ever they think they can get people to buy! From 74 to 77 I think they could have sold all of the above or tried too!
They do bear some strong likeness to current coppers and tin rounds that the design might be still in use for the preppers out there. Most of the ones that turn up for sale at the local gun shows have a generic all the same reverse.

 

I really like the Freedom America design Circus. I believe I had a round just like it at one time.

Bruce