In the early 1980’s I spent an afternoon at the Copyright Office in Washington, D.C.  My purpose that day was to re-search copyrights issued to James M. Harper for banks produced by the Har-per Supply Co.  Among those issued to Harper were seven copyrights for banks registered in 1905.  Of these seven, only three have come to light as verified Har-per banks.  These are the Bull and Bear (known now as the Board of Trade), The Indian Family, and the Liberty Bell.  Until recently, none of the other four (Buster Brown, Old Abe, Cat and Kittens, and Togo) have been found or conclusively identified as Harper banks.

The Flatiron Building, originally known as the Fuller Building, is a triangular 22-story, 285-foot tall steel-framed landmark building at 175 5th Avenue in New York City. It was designed by Daniel Burnham and Frederick Dinkelberg and was completed in 1902. Daniel Burnham was the Director of Works for the 1892-93 World’s Columbian Exposition. He also designed Union Station in Washington D.C., London’s Selfridges Department Store and San Francisco Merchants Exchange, among many others.

It is interesting, and probably important, to follow the trail of very important cast iron still banks. An example is Moore #719, the nickel plated cast iron hippo bank. There may be more than one nickel plated cast iron hippo still bank, but I am only aware of one example of this very rare and very desirable bank.

Nowadays everyone knows clowns, but they are not an invention of today’s circus shows or horror productions, rather they have a far-reaching origin.

My wife and I are getting older and are building a single floor retirement house. It will not have the storage room our current house has, so we have been thinning out everything including our banks. I came across a few that are a little different and thought I would share them with you.

In the Appendix of The Penny Bank Book, Andy and Susan Moore included a comment for the Cannon bank, #1425. It reads: "there is a variation of this bank". The bank shown in the photos on page 129, with an attribution to the Hubley Manufacturing Co., is dated to 1914.

Comic strips became popular at the turn of the 20th century, arising from the great newspaper rivalry between newspaper publishers William Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, giants of the newspaper industry. The Yellow Kid, created by Richard Outcault, is generally recognized as the first true comic strip, first appearing in Pulitzer’s New York World in 1895. Katzenjammer Kids, created by cartoonist Rudolph Dirks, appeared in Hearst’s competing New York Evening Journal in 1897. William Hearst eventually became king of the comic strips, with his newspapers having the largest circulation of strips in the United States. Hearst is credited with introducing the nation’s first full daily comic page in the New York Evening Journal in 1912.

I discovered this bank at the end of the year on December 31, 2022. I’ll refer to it as the Economist Ranges bank. The front of the bank has “USE ECONOMIST RANGES AND BANK THE DIFFERENCE”. The back of the bank reads “J.F. WALKER & CO. MORRISTOWN KNOXVILLE TENN.”

I have a Cash Register Bank I bought when I started collecting and the CASH bar is missing. Looking through some old PBP, I came across an article that Bob Vicic wrote in the April 2019 issue on page 24. His missing CASH bar was creatively replaced with a nice-looking bar with “NO SALE” on it. I have always hated looking at my bank and the hole where the CASH bar should be. I’m not good at crafting things, but decided to give it a try.

David Dods featured an article in the April, 2023, Penny Bank Post about a Central National Bank, Mineola, NY, lead coin bank. The bank is very heavy, has sharp features, and was manufactured by American Art Works, Coshocton, OH. David had never seen another example other than the one in his collection, until he encountered one at the Mineola Historical Society.

The following article is reprinted here from one that originally appeared in the Record Courier newspaper of Ravenna, Ohio, (now the Kent Ravenna Record- Courier) on September 11, 1969.

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 outstanding June 2023 joint Still Bank Convention in the Windy City reflects Frank Sinatra’s song, My Kind of Town. Per the song, “This is my kind of town, Chicago is.” The Chicago convention was a fun time with many interesting banks to see or purchase, places to visit and friends to converse with.…..my kind of town! The convention began with “room hopping” and the opportunity to sight see around Chicago.

The Traders Bank of Canada would have probably faded into the abyss of history if it hadn’t been for some intriguing artifacts that have survived until the present day. These were primarily the impressive deposit collection box banks that were issued by the bank for two years between 1891 and 1893. The coin banks depict the company's corporate headquarter building during this period.

Some people call me a “pack rat”, but my wife and I prefer to describe ourselves as collectors. I have been this way since childhood — in fact I grew up in a family of collectors. My wife, Tammy, acquired the gene on her own and it has made for a perfect partnership. Mainly we want to preserve old stuff! Being surrounded by old stuff is comforting, and brings back fond memories of visits to our grandparents. Even though their old things were family objects and useful everyday items, we found them fascinating.

In the book Coin Banks by Banthrico, authored by longtime SBCCA member Jim Redwine (deceased), there are two Sleeping Santa banks made of different materials than the two metal examples featured in a previous Penny Bank Post article. One bank is made of chalk, also referred to as “Banthrico Plaster,” and the other later version is made of vinyl.

Our first article on the United Bank, Moore #1100, was published in the April, 2001 issue of the Penny Bank Post.

I just recently purchased a Railroad Signal Tin Bank made by Distler in Nuremburg, Germany in 1930.

There were many souvenirs from the Columbian World’s Fair Exposition in Chicago in 1893, including many still and mechanical banks.

A war symbol becomes a money box! The Pickelhaube is a helmet with a spike used in the military. The spike originated from the idea of improved protection against sabre cuts and was intended to deflect blows to the head.