I have been collecting tokens and medals of the John Wanamaker stores and came across this item. I wonder if the winner of this tree relic will get it slabbed?

This is a nifty little relic. There are a number of pieces of timber from the first Philadelphia Mint salvaged by Frank H. Stewart when he demolished its remaining structures in 1911, which Len Augsburger and I catalogued in our book, The Secret History of the First U.S. Mint. This appears to be a timber relic from the second Philadelphia Mint, which was razed about 1902. At any rate, it is clearly an image of the second Mint burned into the timber. A "compete set" of timber relics would comprise one from the first and one from the second Mints, since the third Mint is still in use as a community college, and the fourth Mint is still making our coinage.

Obviously it is from the 2nd Mint, which was demolished c. 1902. At the time, few Philadelphians realized the real “Old Mint” was the first Mint site located on 7th Street. Frank H. Stewart made quite a few relic pieces from 1st Mint timber, but apparently kept no inventory. Of course, half the fun is trying to reconstruct the list, which can be found in Secret History of the First U.S. Mint.