Favorite coin type

[terry5732]

I'm confident this is the coin of the future



But until then I prefer gold

[LaCajaRoja]

Among my zillions of references on EVERYTHING, I found some information on your little aluminum item. It is a "watch charm" made by the Hartsfeld Furnace & Refining Company and offered for sale in 1890 for fifty cents each, about $12.50 equivalent now. Aluminum was so hard to process in those days that it was sometimes worth far more than gold, making it a true precious metal at the time. They also made various aluminum jewelry items.

This is one of the few items I've seen indicating the former value of aluminum. It's not worth a lot intrinsically, but to those who appreciate history it could be quite valuable!

[terry5732]

I searched online for quite a while and found the company but never found another one of the pieces or any mention of them

[terry5732]

[LaCajaRoja]

In 1889 Charles Martin Hall came up with an inexpensive process to refine aluminum. The price dropped out of aluminum pretty fast after that, but Harstfeld was still trying to sell aluminum items at precious metals prices in early 1890's.

Regardless, your item is pretty cool for it's historical value. And, looking over some of your auctions, you have A LOT of interesting things for sale.