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 Replies: 11 / Views: 1,535 |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
5240 Posts |
 This has a diameter of about 28 millimeters. It is uniface, made of thin possibly galvanized steel. I am rather doubtful that anyone can give any background on this item, or its intended use, but I did find that it was the title of a "plantation" song written in the late 1800s. Still, a few more eyes cannot hurt.
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Moderator
 United States
34409 Posts |
"If you climb a good tree, you get a push."
-----Ghanaian proverb
"The danger we all now face is distinguishing between what is authentic and what is performed."
-----King Adz
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Pillar of the Community
 Canada
5240 Posts |
@spence, I forgot to check the token catalogue. Thanks for the reminder.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4416 Posts |
Sorry, guys, there's another "Exo" out there. That wasn't my post. I've not before seen this piece.
Thought: Might it have had something to do with the Jolson movie and song, "Mammy?" I suspect that this token is a 20th century issue. What's on the reverse?
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
5240 Posts |
@exoguy, I hope that nobody steals your exo identity!
There is nothing on the other side-just the mirror image of the same words, but lowered, not in relief.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4416 Posts |
@Oriole .... My ID, they can have .... The rest will cost them!
From the description of the reverse, it's sounding like a brockage. Mirror images are backwards. Might I see a pic?
I'm wondering if there's some of this song's sheet music out there .... I love to find go-alongs, things connected to early exonumia that amplify the subject piece.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
5240 Posts |
@exo, here is the other side.  As I said, this side is incused. Also, I checked the lyrics to the Jolson song Mammy, and I cannot see an obvious connection. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4416 Posts |
@Oriole .... A coins/token bearing a reverse mirror image like this piece is called a brockage. My guess is that this piece was not a token that was intended to be used as a money substitute. It may have been intended to be attached as a jewelry or ornamental item of some sort. There was a minstrel song by this exact name, popularized in 1900, thereabouts. Jolson's "Mammy" song became a huge hit, but this song did gain some popularity, beforehand.
Another possibility is that this token of sorts MAY have been created as an advertising/promotional piece for a song that bears the exact same name. There is precedence for such a scheme. I have a few circus pieces, also brockages, circa 1869, being "teasers" that announced a show coming to town. It often pays to speculate about unusual pieces of exonumia in order to possibly solve the puzzle.
Edited by ExoGuy
01/06/2020 10:00 pm
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
5240 Posts |
@exoguy, that is interesting speculation, as plausible as anything else.
I am inclined to think that there IS some relationship between this item and the minstrel song.
How it ended up in a LCS in Ottawa, Canada would be a fascinating story I am sure.
There was and still is a huge amount of movement from Canada to the US and vice versa, from tiny tokens to people. My sister moved there decades ago and never came back to Canada (not to live I mean).
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
709 Posts |
From the description in the original post it seems that this token was deliberately made of thin metal, causing the reverse to be made that way as part of the production process and not as an error. I understand the name for this type of token or coin to be "bracteate", with "brockage" reserved for coins/tokens which are made by error. Can anyone confirm?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4416 Posts |
IMHO, be it an error or intentional, the effect is still the same, a brockage. We can only guess at this point. BTW, many an "error" coin or token was intentionally struck as such. Look at all the Civil War tokens that were struck atop copper-nickel Indian cents. For example, why else would a period die sinker utilize a genuine cent to create a cent-substitute; this, but to create a collector piece? |
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Valued Member
United States
330 Posts |
Quote:
From the description in the original post it seems that this token was deliberately made of thin metal, causing the reverse to be made that way as part of the production process and not as an error. I understand the name for this type of token or coin to be "bracteate", with "brockage" reserved for coins/tokens which are made by error. Can anyone confirm? This is very much correct. A lot of British co-op tokens are like this. |
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Replies: 11 / Views: 1,535 |
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Posted 01/05/2020 5:07 pm
