What Kind of Bottom Do You Have?
Published in the August 2023 Penny Bank Post | Written by Dan Penn
As I was going through the parts and pieces I’ve collected over the years of collecting, I found these bottoms for the large cupola bank. I had never noticed the difference in them, other than that one was from a cupola with a turnpin.
The Penny Bank Book attributes the large cupola bank to Vermont Novelty Works in 1869 and J. & E. Stevens Co. in 1872. It appears that the Vermont Novelty Works was a manufacturer of children’s carriages, toy perambulators, gigs, guitar cases, and other items. This information is from a company letterhead found on the internet. They evidently manufactured cast iron items since they are credited with the large cupola bank.
Below are pictured the topside of the bottom of four large cupola banks and the underside of the bottom of these banks.
They are pictured in the order I believe they were manufactured. My reasoning for this is described with the number referencing the pictures of the bottoms. . .
