The best investment for a penny (Circa 1900's)

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

The Best Investment For a Penny

(Circa 1900's)

  Penny toys were so named because they were in fact sold for a penny. They were made in European countries (mostly Germany). By 1890, colour lithography was well-estgablished as a printing process, and quality imagery could easily and rapidly be applied to tin metal sheets. After the printing, the designs and shapes of these very small toys were then machine cut, and stamped (impressions and textures). Later factor workers not needing much experience, would assemble thousands of these toys in a day.

  The major production of these very small toys were between 1895 and the beginning of WWI (1914). Millions upon millions of these fascinating toys were produced, and today, many of them are still around. Some of the rarer ones can receive thousands of dollars, while the  the"somewhat" rarer ones can receive hundreds of dollars. Not bad for a penny! 

  Last year, the Canadian government decided to save money by eliminating the penny. Of course, they know how to waste money in lots of other areas, but lest I digress.  Today, it costs me a quarter (25 cents) to buy a large-sized gum ball. How times have most certainly changed! 

Please click here to visit Bertoia Auctions fine website

What's interesting is the diversity of these toys. You can find thousands of these toys, and never see a duplicate. Many of the leading manufacturers of the time manufactured them  for the population who could not afford the more-expensive toys of the era.

What's interesting is hpow many of these toys are in such good condition, considering some of them are most certainly "true antiques" having been around for 100 plus years.

The movement, mechanics, design, and colours, all wen tint making these wonderful toys. The though even crossed my mind to wonder of they were ever used as Christmas decorations?

I wonder if the more-complex toys such as the one above could have cost more than a penny?

As well, would toys like this have been collected or given to children to collect, much as the Tootsietoy or Dinkey toys, and later the Mattel Hotwheels?

I was also thinking that these "minis' would be great for the HO and N scale Fleischmann trains that I just wrote about yesterday! What could be better than  having a Fleischmann 1920 epoch train (coal and steam) with the appropriate "vintage" toys looking exactly like the cars and trucks of that era! Of course, the size is too large, and would have to be used with larger-sized scale trains.

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always, have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

Stacey

Please feel free to write to me anytime at:

toysearcher@gmail.com