David Klinger's notes on the term quoin caused me to dust off a silver vase that was given to my great grandfather who owned a department store on Chicago's State Street. In the early teens, the store merged with A. M. Rothschild and in 1915, the store was an awarded a prize by the Quoin Club - The National Periodical Association "for Window Display of Nationally Advertized Merchandise."

In a leap of translation, I can see the French "coin," meaning the architecturally attractive corners of a building, extending to the windows, but I have never been able to find anything about this organization. It must have been somewhat respectable in its day as the vase weighs 31 oz sterling (Good thing that in 1980 I thought it was silver plate!)