THE CLIFF HOUSE TOKENS

If you like San Francisco history, then you know all about the Cliff House. The name applies to three structures perched on the hillside overlooking Seal Rocks just outside of the Golden Gate. The first was a rather plain structure built in the 1850s. The second—and the object of much attention—was the elegant French chateau-style structure built by Adolph Sutro and destroyed by fire in 1907. The third, a modest building stands on the site today.

I love the Cliff House and its traditions and have visited the site many times, not to overlook the nearby Playland at the Beach. From the Whitney family, owners of the later Cliff House in the 1960s I purchased many coin-operated instruments that had been left over from the “good old days.”

A very collectible souvenir of the elegant Cliff House of the turn of the 20th century is a dime-sized (17.9-millimeter) brass token, of which a couple dozen or so exist and appears now and again on the coin market. A knowledgeable seller might sell one to a knowledgeable buyer for, say, $50 to $100. Like many tokens, prices can vary all over the map. The typical grade is Extremely Fine.

The Cliff House token will be listed in the forthcoming second edition of A Tune for a Token to be published by the Token and Medal Society; the first edition, now long out of print, was published years ago in 1975 and won the “book of the year” award.

“ORCHESTRIAN” on the brass token is a misspelling of ORCHESTRION. Information concerning the instrument is scarce.

To read the complete article, see:
Bowers on collecting: The Cliff House and a special token (http://news.coinupdate.com/bowers-on-collecting-the-cliff-house-and-a-special-token/)

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
ASSISTANCE SOUGHT IN IDENTIFYING TOKEN ISSUERS (http://www.coinbooks.org/v21/esylum_v21n22a27.html)
FURTHER PIANO TOKEN ISSUER ASSISTANCE SOUGHT (http://www.coinbooks.org/v21/esylum_v21n24a11.html)

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