Here's an interesting ephemera piece that I've only seen at auction (two Stack's auctions:
The Brooklyn Sale; March 21, 2007 and
The Amherst & Waccabuc Collections; November 14th, 2007.It's a cartoon-style map of Bennington, Vermont released in conjunction with the 1927 Sesquicentennial of the namesake American Revolution battle.
Side Note: The Town of Bennington was chartered in 1749 and was named after colonial Governor Benning Wentworth - its sesquicentennial was in 1899 not 1927. The Battle of Bennington, which toook place in nearby New York, took place in 1777 and thus we have the 1927 Battle of Bennington / Vermont Independence Sesquicentennial Half Dollar vs. the Bennington, Vermont / Vermont Independence Sesquicentennial Half Dollar.As with the commemorative map of York County, Maine distributed by the York County Tercentenary Commission, the "Wonderland Map of Bennington Vermont" map was available on its own without an embedded half dollar. The map was designed and copyrighted by Edna M. Way, and appears to have been an independent project vs. one led by the Vermont Sesquicentennial Commission - the sponsor of the commemorative half dollar.
About Ms. Way (from the Bennington Museum web site):
"This playful map created for the Sesquicentennial celebration was the work of local prodigy Edna Way. In 1927 she had just earned her MA at Columbia and settled at Ohio University, where she eventually became the head of the Art Department. She taught classes in interior design, a field deemed appropriate for women."
The coin maps sold at auction appear to have had the hole for the half dollar cut into them semi-crudely - a post-production enhancement, if you will. I imagine a small, hand-crafted production run of the coin maps was the reality.
The two maps offered in the Stack's auctions sold for $3,680 and $3,565, respectively - a bit more than I would be willing to spend on such a related-but-unofficial piece.
1927 Bennington, Vermont "Wonderland Map"
(Image Credit: Stack's "The Brooklyn Sale, March 2007")1927 Battle of Bennington / Vermont Independence Sesquicentennial Half Dollar
For other of my posts about commemorative coins and medals, including many others about the Bennington half dollar, see:
Commems Collection.
Posted 05/29/2024 7:16 pm
