SOME OBSERVATIONS ON TOKEN DIES

 

Wayne: Did these come from one of your earlier sales?

Heath: No, these dies were never in my collection.

Wayne: Have you encountered many dies with a connection to Jews or Jewish institutions?

Heath: Many, no. . . I've had a few and they are not dies I would keep in my core collection. If you count Shekels used by Royal Arch Masons I've had many hundreds of dies with Jewish symbols on them.

Wayne: What do you make of this?

Heath: Some quick observations below:

• My first instinct when I saw these was they came from S H Quint. I'm not in my office to compare know examples, but this is where I would start looking. David Gladfelter spent time at the Quint factory in the 1970's and helped them auction off some of their dies. I have a list of the dies he helped sell and can check to see if this was one of them. There were many other Quint dies sold so the list from David is very incomplete.
  • These are what I would call 'coining dies' because dies of this shape/size/style were used in a coining press which was made specifically to manufacture coins, tokens, Masonic Pennies, or items that resembled a coin.
  • These are very simple dies that required relatively little skill/time to make.
• The person describing these clearly doesn't know what he/she is talking about.
  • "Entirely HAND ENGRAVED" - Absolutely, 100% NOT!
  • The engraver "must have been jewish" - How funny! So, was the engraver of my KKK dies a member of the Klan? Aeronautical dies engraved by a pilot?
  • "In general, American token and medal dies dating from before 1950 were destroyed or thrown away after minting stopped. " - A statement of opinion that can't be substantiated with any facts, logic, or common sense. Simply not true. Stamping dies were considered a valuable asset of the companies that used them. They never threw them away after minting stopped!
  • Dies that make American Jewish medals or tokens "have never appeared at auction". - I think I could easily prove this wrong.
• If you notice how the top of the dies were turned down this was done so the dies could fit into a collar.
• It is nice to have both the obverse and reverse die together.
• The bottom of one of the dies is broken. . .
• Starting bid is $750 ($600 plus 25%). I hope I'm wrong, but don't think they will sell.

Overall, they are a nice pair of dies that would clean up nicely. I hate when a dealer, auction company, or any seller makes false statements when the reality is they don't know what they are talking about. The likely buyer for these is not a die collector. As such, these false statements get repeated as fact because they are believed to be true by a naive buyer.

I just looked at Worthpoint and quickly found these examples of die sales with Jewish connections:

 

To read the complete Worthpoint descriptions, see:
ANTIQUE 1929-1930 JEWISH SOCCER LEAGUE MEDAL STEEL STAMPING DIE JN370 AS IS (https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/antique-1929-1930-jewish-soccer-4649670997)
3 ANTIQUE STAR OF DAVID PIN STEEL STAMPING DIES * JN1506 HEBREW TEXT (https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/antique-star-david-pin-steel-stamping-4646074119)

I was unable to connect these dies with the S H Quint company based on the information I have. Attached is a listing of the dies sold by David Gladfelter in 1973 along with a copy of an article David wrote for TAMS in June 1972. David auctioned off 70 dies, he kept 25 for himself, and there were an estimated 10,000 dies total that Quint had available for sale. I have some military related Quint dies in my collection and have seen others not sold by David.

Dies from different manufacturers often have different characteristics that are unique to that manufacturer. For example, attached is an ad for dies from J K Davison sold by Robert Bashlow in 1962. If you look at the shape of the dies and how the dies are turned down for a collar and compare them to the Jewish NYC school dies you can see they are clearly a different style. Davison also put a chamfer at the top of their dies, Quint didn't. This is what I am looking at when I say they look like Quint dies. I can rule out Davidson, Schwaab, and numerous other manufacturers simply based on the way the dies were manufactured.

 

 

To read the complete lot description, see:
A Hand Engraved Steel Die Stamp, Jewish Medal -Token, Brooklyn School, New York 1928 (https://www.appelauction.com/auction/237-rare-special-items-en/lot-356-a-hand/)

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