Thermo Art Plastics Plaques - Update

Very nice looking and interesting, I think that a story in the E-Sylum newsletter, or at least a letter asking for more information would get the answers you are searching for on these plaques.

Fascinating as a plastic guy and a coin guy.

Tagging this thread to remind myself to look into them some more.

Never seen one before just now.

Any links on them would be appreciated.

I'd imagine someone made them as wall decorations to sell to coin shops or people with coin rooms.

If I was a guy making these in my garage on the side, I'd probably hand make the mold and then vacuum form pre-colored sheet.


Found this on google with a listing of the parts made in 1970.

https://books.google.com/books?id=M...corp&f=false

Awesome Buckeye, you're my hero! Great info. Now I know which plaques they made.

I have one of the Lincoln paperweights as well.

The plaques I need are:

$10 Reverse
$5 Reverse
Peace $1 Reverse
Ike $1 Obverse
Ike $1 Reverse (they list it as Apollo 11 Eagle Silver Dollar)
Washington 25c Reverse

I already have my den walls filled with the plaques, and swap them out for variety.

From my limited research, they were made for banks. Most of the ones I've purchased came from closed banks. Some have stickers on them that say "Money Makers", which I believe was a distributor. There is a coin shop in Reno that has the Ike $1 Obverse, and several others that I also have. He said he got the group from a local bank that closed.

Reverses on minor coins seem common, but larger denominations reverses seem quite rare. I would imagine they were sold as individuals, but am not sure. I've seen many sets of Lincoln Cent Obv/Rev and Buffalo 5c Obv/Rev, Indian cent Obv but fewer Rev, Mercury 10c Obv and very few Rev, and then mostly Obv for the 25c, 50c, $1, $5, $10, and $20. I was jumping for joy when I found the $20 Rev, and it is very beautiful! I am hoping the $5 and $10 Reverses are as nice.

I have a lot of extras. Many of the ones I've purchased came in groups, and I bought the group to get just one or two of the plaques. Email me if interested.

Here's a link to a group available on ebay. It has obverses of the Peace $1, Kennedy 50c, Franklin 50c, and Mercury 10c:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Thermo-plas...AOSwbYZXVGmZ

Here's the picture of the group (edited a bit from the ebay image):

The $1 plaques are about 2 feet in diameter(!!) My Peace $1 takes up a big area of my den wall!

Two things.

One, I don't know if I'd like to see the giant Ike reverse or the $20 Saint reverse more. Two of my favorite eagle reverses.

Two, I really want to try making these or something similar. Probably won't ever, but I'd like to mentally entertain the thought at least.

What do they look like from the back?

I am imagining they are hollow with no back and made from a hot thin sheet of plastic formed from a coin mold.

Another 3+ years have gone by, and my collection of Thermo Art Plastics coin plaques has grown almost to completion. Here was my last want list from 2016, with updates:

$10 Reverse --> Found one! It's now one of my favorites
$5 Reverse --> Found one! Another favorite
Peace $1 Reverse --> Found one! Super nice but a bit large
Ike $1 Obverse --> Still looking
Ike $1 Reverse --> Still looking
Washington 25c Reverse --> Found one! Gorgeous

Turns out that the reverses are quite a bit less common than the obverses, which I guess makes sense if they were available as singles. The obverses would probably sell more readily for banks wanting a limited display, with reverses selling only if the display was more complete.

It also turns out that the reverses are nicer looking than the obverses, IMO. I guess this is inevitable since we are so critical of faces. The reverses tend to be more iconic and easier to make look good for some reason.

So now I only need the Ike dollar obverse and reverse. I've seen both for sale over the years but was not sure they were from the same set. Now I know...

Excellent!