Series Encased

 

          There are many merchants and places that made more than one encased piece.  This makes sense, because a customer who has once bought a product is much more likely to buy it again.  In fact, that is one of the main lessons that is hammered into sales people, time and again.  It is a much more profitable use of time to sell to former customers than to try and find completely new customers.

 

Multiple Pieces from the Same Merchant

 

          I received a letter in March 2001 from Mr. Glenford Gerber, asking if I knew who still made encased cents.  At the time, Mintage Masters in Kewaunee, Wisconsin was the only manufacturer of encased cents (they are now out of business and Penny Press Mint in Spanish Fork, Utah is the only manufacturer of encased pieces).  I wrote Mr. Gerber and told him that and asked him to let me know if he made a piece.  In June 2001, I received a new piece in the mail accompanied by a letter.  The piece was horseshoe shaped with a 2001D cent and said: Gerber Lumber & Hardware// 100 Yrs./ 1901-2001.  This is a maverick, positively attributed to Kidron, Ohio based on my correspondence with Mr. Gerber.  I have never seen this piece offered for sale on eBay or otherwise since.

 

          This is part of a very short series of two different pieces, separated by many years.  Mr. Gerber’s father had previously made an encased piece to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the same hardware store.  It was made in 1951 and says:  E. P. Gerber and Sons/ Our 50th Anniversary// 

 

1901 [hole] 1951.This piece is no. 458 in the ECI Wrangler series.

 

          The longest merchant series that I know of lasted 50 years.  It is currently a tie between Gamler’s jewelry store in Buffalo New York and Borok’s furniture store in Newark New Jersey.  The first known Gamler piece is a good for from 1927.  The last known piece is a 1977 for Gamler’s 58th

 

Anniversary.  I have come across 20 different Gamler pieces made during the series. Harry Gamler died at age 99 in 1991 and his son finally closed the Buffalo store in 1997 when he was 77. 

 

          The first known Borok Furn. & Radio Co. piece was a fob horseshoe made with 1934 cent.  In 1940, another fob horseshoe listed the name Borok Furniture Co., although the 1946 piece went back to the Borok Furn. & Radio Co. name.  Thereafter, the pieces referred to Borok’s Quality Furniture from 1947-1951; Borok Furniture Co. from 1953 to 1962; Borok & Son from 1964 to 1974; and finally Borok Home Furnishings in 1984.  I know of  21 different Borok pieces.

 

          Here are some other long running merchant series:  (1) Kennedy’s Boy’s Store, a maverick from a large chain headquartered in Boston Massachusetts, first known piece: 1923 (there is a 1906 piece for Kennedy’s Lynn, a clothes store too, as it said 50 cents off on any Suit or Overcoat, but it did not refer to “Boy’s” as do all the other pieces in the series), last known piece: 1960D, 13 different known pieces; (2) T.E. Ahern Co., Fond du Lac Wisconsin, first known piece: a 1906 maverick, next known piece, 42 years later: 1948S, last known piece: 1953D; (3) McCollum-Crawford Ford Motors, Dishman, Washington, first known piece: 1948S, by 1950, the business was just McCollum Motors, last known date: 1960D, they seemed to make a new piece every year in the 50s; (4) Bennie Blaushild’s Cleveland auto dealership, first known piece: 1946, last known piece: 1964D; (5) Merchants Co-Operative Bank, the Friendly Bank, Boston, Mass., with first known piece: 1951D (although there is a 1940 piece for a Boston Merchants Co-Operative Bank at 24 School Street); last known piece: 1975D; and (6) Vit-a-Way, a livestock feed maverick attributed to Fort Worth Texas, first known piece: 1949, last known date: 1961D, with at least 6 different types in the series.

 

          Although it did not make as many different pieces or for as long as some others, the New York Stork Club probably made more encased pieces total than any other establishment.  That is why they are still so easy to come by today.  There is a listing of various Stork Club pieces on the ECI website.

 

          For many years, starting in 1989, Numismatic News has made a piece to give out at the annual ANA convention.  Bryan Ryker wrote an article about these pieces in the December 3, 2002 Numismatic News, with a listing of the pieces from 1989 to 2001, and

Steve Drake has posted an article on the series on the ECI website. 

 

          There are some modern series as well.  Rexdale Publishing from Hackensack New Jersey comes to mind, with its first piece a 2000D and most recent piece 2005.  Elaine Rexdale has made some of her own pieces even more recently.  The ECI pieces are forming another modern series, as are the pieces of the Worldwide Bi-Metallic Collectors Club.

 

          Sometimes a merchant would make more than one piece at the same time.  This was in order to showcase different aspects of the business, for example, a different piece for each salesman.  In 1951, Mack Markowitz, Inc., an Oldsmobile dealer in Hempstead, New York that is still in business at 180 Main Street there today, made a maverick piece that had a different name at the bottom of each piece, almost certainly a salesman.  There are three known names: Robert C. Suling, Geo. Reffelt and George H. Marks.  There are probably others that have not yet come to my attention.  In a similar vein, in 1947, the Hudson River Day Line, an excursion company that ran trips from New York City north on the Hudson River, made a series of pieces, for each of its different steamers.  Known steamers are: the Robert Fulton, Alexander Hamilton, Peter Stuyvesant and Hendrick Hudson.

 

          If I see a second piece for the same merchant with a different date cent in it, it is more likely than not that the two pieces will have at least one different die.  If there is more than one year’s difference in the dates of the two pieces, it is almost certain that there will be a different die.  I do not know why this is so, particularly as to obverse dies. One would think that the makers of encased pieces would keep the dies around to save costs in case of further orders, but they did not seem to do so.

 

          On occasion, the encased collector has to look carefully to determine that there are two distinct businesses and not a series.  For example, there is a 1971D maverick piece for Iowa State Bank, 1941 1971, 30 Years Strong.  That piece is for a bank located in Des Moines Iowa that was founded in 1941, as it says on the piece.  There is, however, another Iowa State Bank, which is not the same bank.  There are 1953D and 1962D pieces for the Iowa State Bank in Hamburg Iowa.  The 1953D piece says: “More Than 30 Years Continuous Service,” so that the bank in Hamburg was founded in 1923, well before the Des Moines bank of the same name.  The 1962D piece says: “1963 Marks 40 Years Continuous Service.”   It is these two pieces that form a series for the same merchant, but the 1971D piece is not part of the series.  Most states have rules to prevent two corporations from having similar names, but I suspect that one Iowa State Bank may have been a federally chartered institution, while the other was state chartered.

 

City Souvenirs

 

          Many cities made souvenir encased pieces.  The longest souvenir series was longer, and with many more pieces, than any merchant series.  It was the Souvenir of Washington D.C. series, the granddaddy of all series.  The earliest piece that that I am confident was made at the time of the date of the cent is a 1905 round.  I have a horseshoe piece with an 1893 cent in it, but I believe that piece was made around the mid 20s, with circulated cents.  For example, I have the same piece, with the same dies, obverse and reverse, with 1910, 1925 and 1929 cents. 

 

          The last known D.C. Souvenir aluminum piece has a 1974D cent in it.  Recently, the Charleston Mint made a D.C. Souvenir celluloid type piece with a mirror on the back with a 2004 cent.    

 

          I wrote an article about the different bell shaped  D.C. Souvenir pieces in the May 1999 issue of the Casement (no. 16).   At the time, I identified 7 types; and now I know of 8, plus 2 subtypes, one with a different reverse die and the other a different muling.  There are 11 different horseshoe types, with 8 different subtypes with different reverses.  There are 7 different round pieces, with 2 subtypes with different reverses.  There are 2 different chamberpots.  There is one 1948S oval piece.

 

          Someone once told me that the current year’s encased piece could be purchased by tourists at the base of the Washington Monument.  I have not been able to verify this information.

 

          The Souvenir of Niagara Falls series ranks second behind the D.C. series in terms of both longevity and number of pieces made.    The first known piece was in 1901, a round clover piece very similar to the clover Buffalo Pan-American Exposition piece.  The last known piece was 1967.  Almost all of the pieces have U.S. cents in them, although there are a couple with Canadian coins.  In addition to the usual round, horseshoe, bell and chamberpot pieces, there are barrel and teddy bear shaped pieces.

 

Related Businesses – Themes

 

          There have been several related business theme series made over the years.  The best known of these is the 1948 Chevrolet dealer series, with 1947D, 1948 or1948D cents in round 35mm pieces.  Joel Reznick and Jim Hemphill first reported on the series in the February 1989 issue of TAMS Journal, followed up with more listings in the June 1990 issue of the same magazine, and then provided listings in the Casement, issues no. 3-12.  There is also a listing on the ECI website.

 

          Joel estimates that there are well over 1000 different pieces made by Chevy dealers all across the country as part of the 1948 promotion.  The theme of the promotion was “S. A.”  That actually stood for Satisfaction Always, although it is likely that Chevrolet used the S. A. because some might think it stood for Sex Appeal, words that could not be openly used in public advertising back in 1948. 

 

          All the pieces were made of aluminum, except for just a couple that were made of red plastic.  Most have the KMANGB reverse, although a very few have KMAYWHGL.  One of the reverse dies has “S. A”. at the bottom.  It is likely that almost every encased piece made by an auto dealer that fits the type described here is indeed a Chevy series piece.

 

          Probably the second most common series from related merchants is the 1950 encased set from the Metropolitan New York area made for customers with TV stores who placed orders for the new RCA television.  There are now 23 known pieces, each from a different merchant that had sold a customer one of the new RCA television sets.  Several pictures are available on the ECI website.

 

          Another interesting series is for Moskin’s Clothing, which was a national chain of stores.  These pieces are round, 35mm, with 1946 cents and say “Moskin’s Credit” at the top and “Clothes and Jewelry” under the cent, followed by a different address on each piece.  Thus, each piece is a maverick waiting to be identified.  For example, the piece with 34 East Sixth St. is from Cincinnati, Ohio, while 929 Fourth Ave. has been attributed in Vic Nolan’s Penna. encased catalog to New Kensington.

 

          I believe that there was also an amusement park series that came out around 1947.  These are all horseshoe pieces, and most of them use the word “Playground.”  For example, there is one for Hershey Park, Hershey, Pa., Central Pennsylvania’s Playground, another for Lesourdsville Lake, Miami Valley’s Chosen Playground, Middletown, Ohio, and also Dreamland Park, Rochester’s Playground, Sea Breeze, New York; and Roseland Park, Playground of the Finger Lakes, Canandaigua Lake, N.Y., each with 1947 cent.

 

          Keep your eyes open.  I am certain that you will discover many more series of encased pieces from the same merchant, related merchants and souvenirs.