That's certainly a broad collection of Australian and world exonumia there. The only ones that might be coins are the "10 centavos" in the top left corner and the corroded one 4 down 3 across with the Peruvian coat of arms on it. Here's a selection of the kinds of things you've got:
E.W. Cole Tokens - the big aluminium one 2 down, three across, and the gilt-bronze one 7 down 3 across. These were issued by E.W. Cole as advertising pieces for his shop, the Coles Book Arcade. Mr Cole was somewhat of a progressive idealist, and all his "tokens" have a little political or philosophical message on them.
Government-issued souvenir medals: the large one 6 down 7 across, and the brassy one with the loop at 8 down 3 across. These were given away to every schoolchild in the country to mark significant national events. As a result, they're not too rare.
Foreign tokens: There's a Polish telephone token at 4 down 7 across (with a horn on it), a Danish token at 6 down 1 across, and a couple of others.
Barber Check: The one marked "O G & Co" is an Osborne Garrett & Co barber check, for use in a barber shop. Used throughout the British Commonwealth, I believe - they turn up in the UK, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand. Cheap enopugh (especially in that grade) but more interesting than the "normal" type of foreign token.
Holloways Token: 9 down 1 across.
"Professor" Thomas Holloway was, frankly, a supreme "snake-oil" scam artist, flogging his pills and ointments worldwide as cure-alls. He was a pioneer of the marketing strategy (used nowadays by McDonalds, Coca-Cola and such) where saturation advertising created a demand for his products, which he was then happy to fill. Though originally produced for England, Holloway's tokens are quite commonly found in Australia, though many are in corroded condition. That's because most of those used here were recovered from the wreck of the
Dunbar.
Play Money: the "two pence" at 10 down 3 across, the little aluminium piece at 9 down 5 across, the tiny "sovereign" at 4 down 3 across, the "5 cents" at 5 down 9 across, and others. Not much value there, but still of interest to some collectors.
Counterfeits: There's a fake guinea at 3 down 2 across. A real guinea would look a lot more gold-like than that.
Australian tokens: Abberfield Industries at bottom row 3 across, a local maker of tokens for use in turnstiles, car washes, car parks, that sort of thing. They probably also made the "Johnny Green" piece at 9 down 6 across. At 4 down 1 across, there's also an older advertising piece from E. Way, a Sydney-based store.
Religious medals: 2 down 1 across, 8 down 4 across and others. Not too much demand from collectors, because they can't normally be pinned down to a specific time period. Also kind of in this category is a Mark Mason's Token (9 down 2 across).
British medals: the three large ones in the bottom right corner, "Thames Tunnel" at 3 down 1 across, and others.
Australian medals: historically the most interesting, and potentially the most valuable, items you've picked up there. There's some common ones (1 down 2 across, 7 down 5 across / 10 down 4 across, the shield-shaped one 5 down 3 across, bottom left corner and some modern pieces over on the left hand side), a couple of Boer War pieces (7 down 2 across and 8 down 1 across) as well as some scarcer ones, at least we don't see them too often here in Queensland: Jubilee Methodist Church of South Australia (bottom row 2 across) is fairly cheap, but the Adelaide Exhibition pieces (10 down 1 across and 8 down 2 across) are scarcer.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
Posted 10/28/2007 10:41 pm
