Cast Iron Mechanical Banks - Revisited

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Cast Iron Mechanical Banks 

(Revisited)

    Many of the early American toy companies started out as hardware companies, and then expanded into toys. Their initial hardware products were household items such as door hinges, door knobs, and kitchen cabinet handles. Many of the companies were located in  the State of Pennsylvania, where abundant iron ore resources had been discovered earlier. 

  What's most interesting with regard to mechanical banks is that there were so many made the companies, and most of them were mechanical. Each toy had moving parts that allowed an interesting motion and movement to occur. A small lever would be tensioned, a coin would be placed on a part of the small "scene", and when the lever was released, the coin would drop into the hollow bank compartment.  Access to the money was either by a key to unlock the bank, or by opening the bank with a wrench or screwdriver to open half of the bank.  

What's also interesting is that so many of these banks have survived over time. Sadly, due to the closing of many of the original companies,  patent rights and nobody to sue "reproduction" companies over design rights has occurred. Consequently, buyers have to be very careful in not buying Chinese reproductions (today). even way back, smaller companies would copy bank designs and pawn them off as those from the original famous companies of the time. 

Please click here to visit Dan Morphy's fabulous website

   I haven't described what each mechanical bank does. I decided to let you "guess" and figure out what each one does. It's best to enlarge the images in Google Blogger's slide view mode. there,toy will be able to look for the entry where the coin would be deposited inside the bank, as well as the movement that would throw or tilt the coin into the slot.  For today, I selected 5 lower priced antique toys, and 5 more-expensive ones, both relatively moderate to the most expensive one sold if you look at Morphy Auctions total sales. The most-expensive one sold for $ 148,000.000! It certainly was the rarest, but I would have been happy with any of the lower-priced  ones.  When it comes to entertaining young children, the action and the disappearance will keep them occupied for a while.  You just have to be careful thought - these toy banks are very heavy, and most still have the original lead paint on them!

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com