1417

AUSTRALIA: AE token, ND (1885), XF

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / World Coins - Australia Start Price:20.00 USD Estimated At:20.00 - 40.00 USD
AUSTRALIA: AE token, ND (1885), XF
SOLD
55.00USD+ buyer's premium (20.00)
This item SOLD at 2026 Jul 21 @ 14:27UTC-07:00 : PDT/MST
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BUYER'S PREMIUM - The Buyer's Premium is $20 per lot or 20% of the hammer price, whichever amount is greater.
AUSTRALIA: AE token, ND (1885), Dean-D32, 31mm token by E.W. Cole; HUMANITY / IS THE EQUITY / OF THE HEART / HUMANITY IS THE / FAIREST FLOWER / THAT BLOOMS IN THE / HUMAN BREAST / (Rainbow) / FEDERATION OF THE WORLD MEDALS / ISSUED BY/ E.W. COLE / BOOK ARCADE MELBOURNE // inscription either side a Palm or Fern Tree, HUMANITY IS PROGRESS / THE / REIGN / OF / IGNORANCE / AND / FORCE / IS / GOING / THE / REIGN OF / KNOWLEDGE / AND / HUMANITY / IS / COMING, cleaned, XF. This Medal, from Cole's Book Arcade, is one of a series of medals offering maxims and proverbs issued by E.W. Cole at his Book Arcade. He called the medals 'little missionaries for the spread of educative knowledge'. According to Sydney Endacott, an employee of Cole, customers were charged three pence for these medals (which he prefers to call tokens) which, when the Arcade was particularly busy, gave them admission to the second-hand books gallery where the orchestra played. Each medal could be exchanged for thee pence worth of goods, but most were kept. The pierced ones were sometimes worn as pendants or on pocket watch chains. The medals served as perpetual advertisements of the Arcade. George Dean suggests that the medals were also given in change at Christmas time, and could be used to operate amusement machines. Cole had his first medal struck in 1879 and his last one about 1903.