NUMISMATIST MIRRORS

This week I return to my occasional articles on numismatic association items. I suspect that most E-Sylum readers are not familiar with the extent of numismatist mirrors. All items illustrated are from my collection.

Typical numismatist mirrors are round and 2.25 to 2.5 inches in diameter. One side has a glass mirror with the other side a steel shell, a printed image and a plastic cover. The machine to make them is also used to make pinback buttons. The machine to make them is sold by Badge-a- Minute Company to individuals who want to make up a small quantity.

 

Numismatist mirrors have been produced as personal tokens for collectors, as store cards for dealers and as commemoratives for clubs, In addition they can include elongated coins, encased coins or encased postage. Some are also "Good For" trade mirrors which have been highly collected in the past.

At one time personal tokens were very popular among members of the American Vecturist Association (AVA). More than a thousand were produced. Numismatist mirrors were the prized items among AVA tokens. Ten AVA members produced 28 mirrors.

Dorothy C. Baber (1920-2021) is on our list of 100-year-old numismatists. Her mirror includes a nice photograph. It states that it is "GOOD FOR 1 DRINK." This makes it a "Good For" trade token as well as a personal token and a TAMS Banquet souvenir.

Dottie Dow (1940-2004) was known for elongated coins and one of her mirrors has an elongated coin (not shown). She also produced several with a primitive look suggesting they may have been home made using the Badge-a-Minute press. Some may be unique and other may not have been seen.

I met Hal V. Dunn (1935-2006) waiting for a shuttle bus at the 1996 ANA convention in Denver. He produced mirrors in two styles and five colors. The ones promoting his run for sheriff are both personal tokens and election campaign items.

Maurice M. Gould issued a mirror "Good For 65c In Cash" so it is a "Good For" trade token. It also has an encased 1974-D Lincoln Cent This is in addition to being a personal token.

Alvin Hendrickson (1920-2011) featured the American Vecturist Association (AVA) trolley on his mirror. He was one of five AVA members to use this logo in eight color combinations. Other AVA members used other busses, trains and trollies on their mirrors.

The Ed McClung (1920-1995) mirror includes an encased postage stamp with a picture of Will Rogers. McClung was the owner of EM Creations that produced many of the numismatist mirrors issued in Southern California during 1973-1976.

The EM Creations mirror includes an encased 1974-D Lincoln Cent This is a business card offering "Advertising Mirror Cards." They issued one mirror for several southern California numismatic organizations. Most did not issue a second mirror. A Coin World article stated that EM produced 100 to 400 examples of each mirror.

I like the photo of Ruth and Ralph "Curly" Mitchell. He was a prominent numismatist in Southern California. I sat next to his son at a dinner in Colorado Springs.

One of the institutional pieces was for the 1975 reception of the Numismatic Literary Guild (NLG). Ed McClung was a founding member of the NLG. Other NLG members with mirrors include James Betton, Dotty Dow, Gordon Green and Maurice Gould.

Emilie D. Searle (1917-2018) noted that she was a collector of "Advertising Mirror Cards." I didn't realize until February 12 that she was another 100-year-old numismatist. I have only come across two other collectors of mirrors and I bought their collections.

The lavender mirror appears to be issued for the 14 th annual convention of the Token and Medal Society (TAMS). I was not aware that TAMS had conventions. I wrote to David Schenkman who would have been there and he said there were no TAMS conventions back then. Sometimes there is memorabilia for an event that did not happen.

The 1975 mirror for TEC member Richard Townsend includes an elongated coin. The maker is not marked. This was during the middle of the EM Creations period but was not done by them.

 

A Philatelic Numismatic Commemorative (PNC) has a stamp and a coin with a commemorative cancellation. This 5.5 x 7.5 inch envelope includes the 1976 ANA Convention cancellation with a Dick Townsend wooden nickel, a Richard Townsend elongated cent and a TEC mirror. This is one of three mirrors I have seen on a PNC that I have not seen as an individual mirror. It is possible that some have been removed from the envelope.

Most numismatist mirrors are now fifty-years-old or older. In the twenty-first century, a few new ones were produced with encased Lincoln cents (not shown). These were done for Steven & Eileen Drake, Millard W. Hajek, and Vic Nolan, plus the Maryland Token and Medal Society (MDTAMS).

I have about 115 mirrors in my collection. I was only missing one other that I had seen. I believe this is the largest collection of numismatist mirrors that has been ever formed. Then this week I discovered a new one on eBay. I immediately ordered it. I suspect there are other discoveries yet to be made.

I believe it would be impossible to duplicate this collection starting from scratch. I was fortunate to acquire the collection formed by Ray Dillard. It had a great group of EM mirrors but few AVA mirrors. A couple of AVA collections filled in that group. I also acquired some new items in 2001-2002 while they were issued.

The entire collection may be seen on the Newman Numismatic Portal. Search for "Numismatist Mirrors" to find it.

To read the collection catalog, see:
The Foxfire Collection: Featuring United States Type Coins... 1793 to Date (https://archive.org/details/foxfirecollect2003rich)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web