The 2026 World’s Fair of Money

For the first time since 2019, I attended the annual summer convention of the American Numismatic Association, branded as The World’s Fair of Money®. (The late winter convention is the National Money Show®.) This year the WFM was held in Pittsburgh. Having been away from the hobby for several years, I went only to renew or discover  friendships and I did not deliver a presentation though I judged Literature exhibits. The Literature category had three entrants: The Works of David R. Sear, Selected Banknote Reporters, and Selected Works of Charles Trissler Steigerwalt.

I attended the judges orientation on Tuesday and started rating the exhibits that afternoon. With me was my host in Pittsburgh, a lifelong printer and typesetter. We read the exhibits and talked about them that afternoon and into the evening. When I returned to the convention Wednesday morning, I reviewed my work. In my opinion, all of the Literature exhibits had problems that prevented any of them from a clear first place award. 

First place went to The Works of David R. Sear. The ten display cases held nice, newish copies of the editions of his books. All of the books were closed. Not presented were page proofs, mark-ups, or manuscripts. Nothing was said about content added or deleted across editions. The need to change prices was mentioned but without explanations of cause, only a tautologous statement that rising prices caused prices to change necessitating a new edition.

Historian Dennis Boggs
www.meetmrlincoln.com

Cards around the volumes carried lines and paragraphs about Sear and how he became the leading author of these catalog price guides for Greek, Roman, and Byzantine coins. In my opinion, the best thing about the exhibit was the typesetting on the note cards which were mounted on foam-core panels. 

After I turned in my judging forms, I was free to explore the convention and meet people. With my reporter’s notebook in hand, I introduced myself with my business card, saying that I would be writing about the convention for both online and print media. 

Near the center of the floor, opposite the U.S. Mint, the four representatives of Goldback did not go on record or talk to me and insisted that only the CEO or publicity manager was authorized to speak for the company and no one went on record because they were unauthorized to say that their pricing information is proprietary and not for public release. However, Goldback issued demonstration notes for the convention and those were giveaways on the floor. 

Some of the recent issues of T&S Coins of Vilnius.

T&S Coin of Vilnius was also on the Promenade at booth 1033.  Their representative, Julija Markauskienė, sat down with me to outline their business model and marketing. T&S Coin (https://www.ts-coin.com) specializes in high-relief silver celebrations, limited to 500 pieces per design. The newest products are 2-ounce coins. Many series are colorized. The premium product is sold wholesale to dealers who have pre-positioned customers for these memorials to pirates, samurai, Amazons, elves, the Knights Templar, and very many other popular themes. Coins denominated in dollars have been issued for Liberia and Niue. For Cameroun, the denominations have been in francs. 

Julija Markauskienė greets a customer.

Julija Markauskienė told me that their issues are usually 95% sold out when released. As a result, she said, there is an active secondary market. She told me that their sales break out into roughly one-third each in Europe, Asia, and North America.  

Vintage Collectibles Group (Florida) and Omaha Collectibles Group (Nebraska) are the banners for Matthew Brotherton of Knoxville, Tennessee. A graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Law, Matt came to numismatics because his father was a collector. He told me that he loves history and loves to travel. 

It was nice to stop by and chat with Jonathan K. Kern of Lexington, Kentucky. Long ago, he helped me acquire an ancient Greek coin for my collection, “Towns and Times of Philosophers.” Our children are about the same age. In addition to ancients, Kern works with US federal and related coinage, and he is a PCGS-authorized dealer for direct grading submittals. 

My introduction to numismatics came from Liberty Coin Service of Lansing, Michigan. Back in 1972, the owner, Bill Bradford, and I sat on a curb outside the East Lansing State Bank where he had a box. A few weeks later, he had a counter in a jewelry store. The next year he had the whole store. Ten years later, an admirer of H. L. Mencken’s The American Mercury, he retired from numismatics to start Liberty magazine, selling the store to Pat Heller. Nominally, Pat retired a few years ago, but he was at the show. I met him at the Exhibits on  Tuesday afternoon, and he was at the LCS booth the next day. 

Tyrants of the Golden Horn is a museum experience. The traveling exhibit is called the world’s most valuable private collection. It embraces “tyrants” from the Tigris to the Thames by displaying the highest quality examples of their most valuable circulating coins, such as the gold solidus of Constantinople. From the first Roman coins struck there to the first modern issues of Turkey, they say that their hallways offer a complete inventory of rulers. Find their website at https://www.thetyrantcollection.com/the-collection/

PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS

Numismatic Truthseekers 

I Took My Change in Baybucks 

Numismatics: The Standard of Proof in Economics 

The Future of Money 

Numismatics: History as Market 

Cleveland, Ohio, and the Gates of Argonath

"Two pairs of entrance pylons on both the west and east ends of the Hope Memorial Bridge (formerly the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge) have figural reliefs symbolizing the development of road transportation. These stylized 43-foot high pylons, carved of Berea sandstone, are well-preserved examples of Art Deco figures, all holding examples of road transportation." --
https://www.bluffton.edu/homepages/facstaff/sullivanm/ohio/cleveland/bridgepylons/hering.html

The Argonath, also known as the Gate of Kings or the Pillars of the Kings, was a landmark on the northern edge of Gondor. The Argonath consisted of two enormous rock pillars, carved in the likenesses of Isildur and Anárion facing to the north. Placed upon huge pedestals, each of the two figures held an axe in its right hand and its left hand rose in a gesture of defiance to the enemies of Gondor. The two statues stood upon either side of the River Anduin at the northern approach to Nen Hithoel. -- http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Argonath

"The Argonath ... marked the northern border of Gondor, as nearby down south were previous outposts, Amon Hen and the Amon Lhaw.
The Argonath was originally constructed about TA 1340 at the order of Rómendacil II to mark the northern border of Gondor, although the realm was greatly diminished in size by the time the Fellowship of the Ring passed the monument on February 25, 3019."  -- http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Argonath

"Perhaps the most memorable features of the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge are the 43-foot tall “Guardians of Transportation” which line its sides. These four huge double-sided pylons, carved out of sandstone from nearby Berea, Ohio, represent technological advances made in transit, with each Guardian holding a different kind of vehicle in its massive hands. Frank Walker designed the pylons and Henry Hering did the actual sculpting with the help of a number of local stonecutters."
-- https://clevelandhistorical.org/items/show/73

"In the 1970s, Cuyahoga County Engineer Albert Porter wanted to tear down the pylons in order to add lanes to the bridge. He did not get his way. So, when the bridge reopened in 1983 after nearly three years of repairs, the Guardians of Transportation were still in place. The bridge was renamed at this time, becoming the Hope Memorial Bridge, in honor of actor Bob Hope and his family - English immigrants who came to Cleveland in 1908. William Henry Hope, Bob’s father, was a stonemason who worked on the construction of the Guardians in the 1930s."
-- https://clevelandhistorical.org/items/show/73

"Henry Hering is well known for his work as an architectural sculptor. Much of his work consists of allegorical figures done in the Beaux-Arts tradition, although a few of his later works, such as the detailing in Severance Hall and the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge in Cleveland, Ohio, were done in the Art Deco style. Hering's reputation as a sculptor decreased as International Modernism dispensed with architectural, figurative and allegorical work. As with many other such artists Hering's oeuvre is now being reexamined in a more positive light. In 1928 he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member and became a full Academician in 1937."
 -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Hering

"Hering is further remembered in relation to the unfortunate crash of an American B-25 military airplane into New York City's Empire State Building on July 28, 1945. The largest sections of the plane remained lodged in the building, or fell directly to the streets below. However, one engine ripped from its wing and traveled some distance away, regrettably landing in Hering's top floor penthouse studio, located in a building near the crash. At the time, newspaper coverage of the accident reported that, although the artist was not in his studio at the time, about $75,000 worth of his work was destroyed." -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Hering

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Superheroes Live in Cities
Mapping it Out: An Alternative Atlas of Contemporary Cartographics
The Wizard of Oz and the Anti-Intellectual Tradition
The Akkadian Roots of Modern Semitic Languages

SUPERMAN: AMERICAN ALIEN

Canon exists. Once you stray from canon, you go from a slippery slope to a reductio ad absurdum in which all you have is an empty name. A Vegetarian Big Mac has no meat.  Alternately - and it is all about alternates - once a new poet recasts a myth, broad reception and acceptance can solidify that new interpretation into a classic. 

In the earliest saga of Sifrit, Brynhilda was a Valkyrie. In the Middle Ages, she was the Queen of Iceland; Hagan and his gang were Burgundians; and the curse of the Nibelungs was effected by Attila the Hun. Richard Wagner reanimated the older epic and made it the new canon. Clash of the Titans is no less canon than the re-imaged work of Apollonius of Rhodes who about 250 BCE borrowed from several ancient legends to build his Argonautica. 

The core of the Arthurian legends was a handful of separate stories. From them, Chretian of Troyes constructed a new epic for the court of Marie of Champagne, the half sister of Richard Lionheart. Four hundred years later, Sir Thomas Mallory reshaped the story for his own time - though we hardly know the difference between the two periods, both being only "medieval." In the 19th century, the romantic revolution provided the context for Alfred Lord Tennyson's Idylls of the King. Two generations later, they were presented as T. H. White's Once and Future King; and in another 20 years, the Broadway musical Camelot by Lerner, Loewe, and Hart came to stand for the Kennedy Administration.

How many times has Superman has been re-imaged? How many timelines and alternate universes exist? Even Bizarro Superman has re-instantiations.  And if Superman is variously vulnerable to the many forms of kryptonite, why is he never affected by his own costume, the space ship that brought him here, or Supergirl? (Riddle me that, Batman.)

In this version by Max Landis, Nick Dragotta, John Workman, and their collaborators, we meet a Superboy with whom Smallville is more or less adapted. Clark Kent's super powers still surprise him. Clark Kent's challenge after moving to Metropolis is to discover the range and limits of his abilities, and how to best use them--for his own good, and perhaps for a greater good. That greater good is also a challenge, though this version has no soul searching.

Superman and Clark Kent meet Batman and Bruce Wayne.  We have the wider field of vision, of course, perhaps even an x-ray vision by which we see their inner processes as they meet. But, again, Max Landis has written without the deep philosophizing of self reflection. As Montag said in Fahrenheit 451, inside each book is a man.

PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS

The Future Starts Slowly

Monsters from the Id

The Ferengi Rules of Commerce

Knowledge Maps

Romantic Realism

Romantic Realism is a school of aesthetics that developed as a consequence of the works of Ayn Rand. Rand saw herself (paraphrasing) as "the last of the Romantics or the first of their return."  The label Romantic Realism appears nowhere in Ayn Rand's  The Romantic Manifesto (1969). However, many of the artists who create these modern expressions of heroic values found validation in Rand's works. Quent Cordair Fine Art Galleries of Napa, California, sells their sculptures and paintings. (One artist not in their sales group, but in that style, is Michael Newberry.) 

Bryan Larsen at Quent Cordair Galleries

Perhaps the best known realist painter was Norman Rockwell. The problem with his realism is that the themes are from the naturalist school: quaint, commonplace, everyday. Some of his works do step outside of the village life typified by Thornton Wilder's Our Town. Perhaps his best was "Freedom of Speech" one of the Four Freedoms series that he created as propaganda for America's efforts in World War II. But that was an exception.

Tamara Bonêt at Quent Cordair Fine Art

Aesthetic romanticism was launched by the French school of the 19th century: Gericault, Delacroix, and Rodin. It was expressed best by the Academic schools (France, America, Britain) of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. William-Adolphe Bouguereau's realistic myths typify that. But they were submerged by later critics and theorists who promoted Impressionism, Expressionism, Abstract Expressionism, Cubism, Dada, and stuff even worse. The reason (or excuse) that I learned in an art history class in college was that the invention of the photographic camera made realism unnecessary. So, artists sought new modes.

Quent Cordair at Quent Cordair Fine Art

Of course, it is impossible to get a snapshot of a successful Icarus descending. And even mundane images of shepherdesses or mourners would have to be staged, lit, shot, and developed, each step an artist's choice of values.

Karl Jensen at Quent Cordair Fine Art

That is the essence of aesthetics, according to Ayn Rand: "Art is a selective re-creation of reality according to an artist's metaphysical value-judgments."  And that is where Bouguereau failed: his people are often sad and wistful, the girls often vacuous. None of his figures are positively assertive. The best are enraptured with passion, but it is passive pleasure given by others in adoration.

Pursuit by Michael Newberry at
http://www.michaelnewberry.com/

Romantic Realism takes the style of  the Academic school and empowers it with the internal engine of motivation.

"Quent Cordair Fine Art was established by artist Quent Cordair in 1996. As a premier provider of contemporary Romantic Realism in painting, sculpture and drawing, QCFA has grown to serve an international clientele of private and corporate collectors.
"Romantic Realism, the movement which renews the high esthetic standards and techniques of pre-20th century ateliers, brings a rebirth of comprehensibility, beauty, romanticism and stylization to contemporary subject matter. The gallery's collection emphasizes themes which celebrate the moments of happiness, joy and success possible to Man on earth.
"Subject matter includes figurative, narrative, allegorical, still lifes, seascapes and landscapes. Award-winning painters and sculptors of international renown are represented, as well as emerging artists of unique vision and accomplishment. Commissions are available for portraiture, murals, garden and architectural projects.
"QCFA's extensive website serves as an invaluable resource for private collectors, interior designers and landscape designers. For additional information, please call (707) 255-2242." -- http://cordair.com/

ALSO ON NECESSARY FACTS
Art as Ordered Narrative  
The Art of Finance 
Art & Copy 
Money is Speech 

A Chronology of Recent Historical Periods

We like our history neat. The western Roman empire ended on September 4, 476, when Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustus and declared himself king, with direct allegiance to the emperor at Constantinople.  The Dark Ages ended on Christmas Day 800 AD when Charlemagne was crowned Holy Roman Emperor.  But life is not like that.  To the people of the time, not much had changed.

 The philosophes and encyclopédistes of the Enlightenment created a new understanding of how history was made – and could be made.   They decided that the Renaissance ended the Middle Ages.  The founders of the American republic were acutely aware that they were making history. The Great Seal of the United States announced a new order for the ages.  The French revolution brought a new calendar and a new system of “rational” weights and measures to complement their new social order. 

About New Year’s Day 1960, I heard a radio commentator speak of the Fabulous Fifites and Fortified Forties; and he wondered what we would call the Sixties.  As I completed 37 hours of undergraduate and graduate classes in history over the course of 40 years at half a dozen schools, the question stayed with me.  My answers may be arguable, but they are not arbitrary.

Age of Reason 1648 to 1775 (End of 30 Years War to Adam Smith and American Revolution)

Enlightenment 1726-1803  (Third Edition of Newton’s Principia to Napoleon’s Empire)

The Industrial Revolution: 

• Long Industrial Revolution: 1750-1950 (Watt improved the Newcomen Engine 1759; first computers during World War II).
• Short Industrial Revoltions 1759-1775  (Watt's improved engine; Watt and Boulton)
• Modal Industrial Revolution: 1775 -1837 (Watt went into business with Boulton making his engines commercially successful; the first practical electric telegraphs cap the era and announce the conception of the information age.)

19^th Century 1815 to 1914 (Fall of Napoleon to World War I)

These periods are imprecise because they affected painting, music, and literature differently. Even chess has classic, romantic, and neoclassic trends. Prokofiev's Symphony No. 1 (1917) was self-consciously neoclassical.  Post-modernism was perceived as a historical trend by art critics about the same time as it was declared mandatory by philosophy professors.

Baroque  17th to early or mid 18th centuries
Rococo  Mid to late 17th century
Neo-Classical  1750-1803 (Goes with the Enlightenment)
Romantic 1820 to 1890 (The French Restoration and English Regency to the Gilded Age)
Impressionist  1880 to 1940
Expressionist  1920 to 1940
Modernist (1900 to 1960)
Post-Modernist (1970 to present)

Roaring Twenties – 1919 to 1933 (The Prohibition Era, with its easy prosperity and dramatic Depression)

Thifty Thirties – 1929 to 1940/41  (The Black Tuesday and Black Thursday of the stock market only suggested events to come, but the collapse was dramatic and well-perceived at the time.)

Fortified Forties – 1939 to 1952 (The shooting did not stop until the Korean War.)

The Cold War (1949-1989; from the Berlin Airlift to the Fall of the Berlin Wall.)

The Space Age: It is easy to see when it started.  We might still be in it, with the ISS in orbit, universal GPS, and a probe landing on a comet.  But I believe that something was lost, if not in the disasters, then perhaps in the successes. )

·       Space Age 1957 to 2011 (Sputnik to last Atlantis Flight)

·       Space Age 1957 to 2003 (Sputnik to Columbia disaster)

·       Space Age 1957 to 1986 (Sputnik to Challenger disaster)

·       Space Age 1957 to 1972 (Sputnik to last Apollo mission)

Fabulous Fifties – 1952 to 1963  (Eisenhower to Kennedy)

Psychedelic Sixties 1964 to 1972 (Beatles to Watergate) [Jimi Hendrix died Sept. 18, 1970; Janis Joplin died October 4, 1970; Jim Morrison died July 3, 1971]

Spaced Out Seventies 1972 to 1980 (Watergate to Reagan)

Spaced Out Seventies 1972 to 1984 (Watergate to Macintosh)

Yuppies 1984 to 1998 (Success of Reagan Revolution to Clinton Impeachment)

Computer Revolution 1974 to 1984 (Altair 8800 to Macintosh)

Information Age 1984 to Present

The New World Order 1989 to Present (Fall of Communism to Present)

Globalism Ascendant 1989 to 2001 (Fall of Communism to 9/11; "The End of History" prematurely announced.)

Islamic Reaction 2001 to Present (9/11/2001 to Present)

PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS

When Did the Great Depression Begin?

Karl Marx and the Dustbin of History

Money as Living History

Numismatics: History as Market

"Painted Papers" Offers Artisan Wraps

We met Debra Flanagan at our neighborhood Whole Foods when she gave us an origami turkey that she made from one of her handcrafted wrapping papers.  

DEBRA FLANAGAN (right)
talks to a customer at Whole Foods.

Her coatings adhere non-destructively to standard clear ("scotch") tapes. So, the tape does not tear the finish and the paper can be reused.  Many other creative projects can integrate these unique papers. Debra Flanagan paints her specially-made papers by hand. The paper is sold by the roll (26 inches by 72 inches, more or less) at local Austin craft stores, artisan events, and Whole Foods markets.  She has an email address, PaintedPapers@Yahoo.com, but no blog or website.

You can read more about her at the Clarksville Pottery website here. 

Clarksville is a neighborhood just outside of downtown Austin. Founded by freedman Charles Clark in 1871, Clarksville is the oldest surviving post-Civil War freedomtown west of the Mississippi River.  Wikipedia here.)

ALSO ON NECESSARY FACTS

The Genius of Design

Around Austin (2014)

Pi in the Sky Over Austin

Neal Adams at Dragon's Lair

Shooting the Roadhouse Relics Gallery

Roadhouse Relics is the Austin, Texas, studio and gallery where neon artist Todd Sanders crafts his vintage-style designs using durable modern materials and specialized weathering techniques. -- http://roadhouserelics.com/

It is not surprising that people stop to photograph the mural.

What may be notable is that so many do.

I had lunch on South Congress; and then walked over

to South 1st to catch a bus. In the time I waited ... 

...  I counted eight different photographers in 35 minutes.

Previously on NecessaryFacts
Around Austin
High Brew Cold Coffee
Austin at Night
BSides Austin 2013
SXSW 2013

Neal Adams at Dragons Lair

Neal Adams was in town for Comic Con, signing his art at our favorite comics and fantasy store Dragons Lair.  If you are not a fan of comics, then you do not know the radical and innovative work that Adams brought to the industry.  It is enough to say that of all the great artists of the Silver Age, he worked as an independent contractor to both Marvel and DC. See Wikipedia here.

I bought an autographed print of this for my wife 

who, as a systems security professional, 

is a fan of Batman.

http://intentionalprivacy.com

Neal Adams explains the pricing
to fans at Dragons Lair
in Austin, November 20, 2013

ALSO ON NECESSARY FACTS
Dressed for Encounters
Gaming Goes Mainstream
Around Austin
Nerd Nation 4.5: Mayim Bialik
Formulas for Success

Raymond Loewy

Today's Google Doodle celebrated the 120th birthday of Raymond Loewy, the father of industrial design. 

Raymond Loewy is called “the father of industrial design” for a reason.
He took ugly consumer items — pencil sharpeners, refrigerators — and made them beautiful.
He designed cars that were a decade or more ahead of their time.
He created kitchen appliances, crockery and furniture,
and did design work for Greyhound, the U.S. Postal Service and NASA.
(The website cataloging his work is here.) 

"I waited for the S-1 to pass through at full speed.
I stood on the platform and saw it coming from the distance at 120 miles per hour.
It flashed by me like a steel thunderbolt, the ground shaking under me,
 in a blast of air that almost sucked me into its whirlwind.
Approximately a million pounds of locomotive were crashing through near me.
I felt shaken and overwhelmed by an unforgettable feeling of power,
by a sense of pride at what I had helped to create.
I had, after all, contributed something to a great nation
that had taken me in and that I loved so deeply.
And I had come a long, happy way myself from my start in fashion advertising.
I had found my way of life."

Every artifact speaks to us, reflects us.  Loewy delivered the 20th century.  He was not alone but his sense of vision brought form to thousands of common items.  And they inspired a century of material progress that nurtured and rewarded the common (and largely unstated) belief that we can and will make a wonderful future.

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The Genius of Design
Space is the Place: Come to the High Frontier
Jack Kemeny Knew: We Shall Have Computed
The Cure for a Failing Empire
The Science of Liberty

Industrial Medals a Currency of Fame

Most people call it “coin collecting” but numismatics is the art and science that studies the forms and uses of money. That includes money-like objects, which we call “exonumia.”  Examples occupy the latitudes from merchant tokens and bus and bridge tokens to medals including military orders, such as the Congressional Medal of Honor.  The art medal was invented in 1439 by Antonio di Puccio Pisano (called “Pisanello”). The occasion was for the Emperor at Constantinople, John VIII Palaiologos, who came to Italian cities to negotiate treaties. (The standard reference is The Currency of Fame: Portrait Medals of the Renaissance by Stephen K. Scher, which is a catalog of the Frick Collection in the U.S. National Gallery of Art.)

The plethora of adverting exonumia has no easy taxonomy.  The Krause Standard Catalog of United States Tokens 1790-1900 by Russell Rulau assigns them to a dozen classes, but then must have another genus for mavericks. Within the classes – Advertising Checks, Counterstamped Coins, Poker Checks, Tool Checks, etc. – physical shapes exceed the limitations of Federal coinage: rectangles and hearts are statistical likelihoods.

41 mm reeded edge non-magnetic. 
Obverse: Durango Silveton Narrow Gauge Railroad.
(Steam from stack of engine with snow plow mounted at front.) 
Reverse: "Durango Rotary Club / Service Above Self /  
This coin is good for two dollars in trade at cooperating businesses 
in Durango through April 30, 1984. / High Noon Club” 

"Durango was founded by the Denver & Rio Grande Railway in 1879. The railroad arrived in Durango on August 5, 1881 and construction on the line to Silverton began in the fall of the same year. By July of 1882, the tracks to Silverton were completed, and the train began hauling both freight and passengers."The line was constructed to haul silver & gold ore from the San Juan Mountains, but passengers soon realized it was the view that was truly precious."This historic train has been in continuous operation for 131 years, carrying passengers behind vintage steam locomotives and rolling stock indigenous to the line. Relive the sights and sounds of yesteryear for a spectacular journey on board the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad."

All Aboard Magazine online here the official magazine of the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad.

 33 mm aluminum. Plain edge. 
1934 Chicago Century of Progress.
Obverse: Union Pacific Lucky Piece
Art deco Union Pacific engine.
Reverse legends: “Sample of the aluminum in the new Union Pacific train
built by Pullman Car & Mfg. Corp.” 
1929 trademark Norman shield with ACOA and ALCOA 
with stars in corners.
“Aluminum Company of America"
in exergue: "GREENDUCK, CHI"

Manufactured by Greenduck of Chicago (about that company here on E-Sylum of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society.)  One million given out at fair.

34 mm aluminum 4 mm height. plain edge
Obverse: Heavy machine press with BLISS name.
Legend: "Bettering the Standard of Value Since 1857"
Reverse: Standard US Bicentennial logo and legends.

Though he began building machines in 1857, E. W. Bliss founded his firm in 1867. Reorganized several times, a vestige still operates as Bliss Clearing Niagara in Hastings, Michigan, specializing in the repair and maintenance of industrial metal presses.  Bliss created primary production tools, machines that made other machines. They also produced military ammunition and a wide range of large and small containers made of sheet metal. For a short time around 1906, at their main office Brooklyn, New York, plant they manufactured an automobile.

E. W. Bliss Company on Wikipedia here:

“Walkabout the Lords of Owl’s Head” at the Brownstoner blog. 

“Torpedoes and Telegraph Codes” from the Brooklyn Public Library.

See also the online sales catalog of the Sterling Machinery company.

(Not to be confused with Bliss Machines, founded 1987 outside Buffalo New York by Bill and RandyKanner.) 

J & L Steel. 35 mm non-magnetic plain edge. Spinner. 
Obverse: “YOU [up arrow] ↑ WIN WITH J & L STEEL STOCKS” 
horseshoe and shamrock.
Reverse: “For dependable warehouse service 
call Walnut 1-0470.” J&L Steel in square.

 Every artifact gives evidence to the full context of its culture. A spinner is a coin struck with a raised center point. On the reverse side, an arrow points outward. “You pay” it says. Nicer variations such as “You win!” mean the same thing.

Founded in 1852 by B. F. Jones and Bernard Lauth as the American Iron Company outside Pittsburgh. James H. Laughlin bought out Lauth’s interest. Before 1861 and the firm was renamed in its new offices at Third & Ross in downtown Pittsburgh.  Growing up in Cleveland in the 1950s, our home was so close to the mills that late at night with the windows open, I could hear the yard engines working.  At its peak in the 1970s, the Cleveland facilities employed 4,000 people and produced 3 million tons of steel annually.

See also Wikipedia here. 

 Bronze 75 mm (3 inches). Extremely high relief.
Plain edge with incuse “Medallic Arts Company Bronze.”
Obverse: “Serving the Graphic Arts / 1906 – Fiftieth Anniversary – 1956”
“Pitman” (At left above P engraver’s name: Harold M).
Center: in Wreath: Camera, Press, Engraver’s hand with tool.
Reverse: three scenes: “Photo Engraving”: “Lithography”: “Rotogravure”.
Center triangle with center circle Camera and operator. 

 Harold M. Pitman founded the company in Chicago in 1907. Starting out by himself, he made and sold steel dies and copper plates to engravers. Pitman celebrated its 100th birthday in 2007. Agfa Gevaert Group acquired Pitman for $80 million on July 15, 2010.  The Pitman brand is still seen at 16 sales and operations offices in the USA.

 Brief history from AgfaGevaert

38 mm. Silver. Reeded edge.
Obverse: “Sierra Ball Pens” on Mountain. “Faber Castell / 1986” below.
Reverse modeled on Morgan Dollar.
Legends “United States of America One Troy Oz. / .999 Fine Silver.”

"Faber-Castell, established in 1761 by the cabinet maker Kaspar Faber (1730-1784), is one of the oldest industrial companies in the world.  The company is the world’s leading manufacturer of wood-cased pencils with a varied range of products for writing, drawing and creative design, as well as decorative cosmetics. …  Today the eighth generation family member Count Anton-Wolfgang von Faber-Castell, who took over as head of the company in 1978, has been instrumental in new product development and the expansion of international activities."

Company website About Us here.

"One of its biggest eco-initiatives came in the mid-1980s, when the company started a sustainable tree-planting project in Brazil. Developed on former grassland and nowhere near the Amazon River, the company-planted pine forest provides about 75% of Faber-Castell's wood. After the trees are cut down, they're quickly replaced with seedlings of fast-growing pine species.”

The Sierra Club here.

The application of steam engines and machine tools to coin production allowed industrial and commercial firms to celebrate their products, services, trades and crafts with coin-like objet’s d’art.  The first of these were the “British Provincial” series of the 1790s, mostly struck by the Soho Mint of James Watt and Mathew Boulton. In half-penny and penny size, they often promised to pay pounds sterling in return for 480 or 240 brought to London or Birmingham. Their beauty, consistency and cost-efficiency eclipsed anything from the Royal Mint. 

In America, private tokens of the Jacksonian Era spoke to the politics of the day.  They skirted the laws against private money. “Millions for Defense NOT ONE CENT for Tribute” was a common reverse legend.  Through the nineteenth century, thousands of taverns, restaurants, and general merchandise retailers issued “Good-for” tokens.  Essentially, these were ad hoc currencies backed by the goods and services of the issuers. 

In parallel to all of that, many coin-like items declared no value, but only announced the firm. Behind government money and private currencies, numismatics grants only a third place interest to these. Nevertheless, they continue a tradition from the Renaissance to honor oneself and to announce one's achievements to the world.

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