1820 Harp & Bust Half Penny Token & 1940’s Renwal Toy Car

[ANTIQUARIAN]

I’ve had my eye on a small ‘parkette’ for the past few weeks; I spent 4hrs here on Wednesday.

Parkette - A small piece of unused land that has been ignored, overlooked, abandoned or is otherwise unsaleable that has been converted into a green space, recreational area or playground. Usually found in an urban setting and frequently near busy roads. Prevalent in cities eager to appear to be providing green space when they actually have lack of real parks.
“Let's take the kids over the parkette to play and hope they don't run over by the speeding traffic”.

I started by speaking to one of the neighbors across the street and he told me, “that he’d been living there since the subdivision was built in the 1960’s and the park was originally part of the dairy farm where the homes now stood”. My first find was the cast metal toy car; it’s stamped underneath ‘Renwal No. 147’. The second interesting find was the 1820 Bust & Harp Half Penny Token. The token was on the up-slope of the hill the park sits on, maybe an early tobogganing loss?

“Canada didn’t become 'official' until its confederation in 1867. Before then a wide variety of privately minted coins supported commerce and trade. Most were copper pennies and half pennies. This example is likely an example of a counterfeit made by retailer in Lower Canada (Montreal) c.1830”.

Thanks for looking,
Dave

PS. The aluminum 1tbsp. measure was found at Lakeview Park in Oshawa, ON the and I decided to tumble the pieces to see what they'd look like.

 

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[Trezurehunter]

Really like those metal cars, & the token is very nice also.

 

[CRUSADER]

Congrats, that token is in great shape.

 

[RJ55]

Cool finds

 

[Loco-Digger]

Congrats on exploiting that area most would overlook. You pulled some cool pieces. That sandy soil is mild to allow the paint to stay on those toys.

 

[pepperj]

Great to see an oldie getting popped out of a newer green space, liking the auto's and toys you've been digging up lately.Congrats on the Bust and Harp Token buddy.

 

[Gridwalker306]

Wow, that token is a really good find!

 

[sutphin]

HEY ANTIQUE , NICE CAR FIND AND HARP TOO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Thanks very much for all the posts and for the words of support guys, I'll be answering each post individually as always tomorrow afternoon.

We finally received some steady rain here in Southern Ontario this afternoon, so I decided to do a bit of restoration to the Renwal Toy Car I found on Wednesday.
I took the wheels and hub caps from a roached out '62 Cadillac I found last year. I then made new axles and fitted them to the car.
The masking tape is just holding the wheels in place while a dot of Weldbond glue dries to keep the wheels from floating on the axles.

Let me know what you all think if this type of restoration should've been done or should I have left the piece without wheels.
Dave

 

[pepperj]

Looks great I think, what a chick magnet.

 

[Loco-Digger]

Nice fix, it's yours and will look nice in your collection. I personally think it came with black tires though. I find it amazing the time I take to clean and display most of relics and oddities that I have found. That car gave you purpose when you decided to put some time into restoring it.

 

[Old Dude]

Very nice finds Dave. I can't remember if I have found a Renwal before or if I just remember reading about them here lol.

 

[RestoringYourFinds]

That 1820 Harp is beautiful ! Congrats.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[NEPADIGGER7]

Half penny!!! Great I'm still looking for mine!

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Really like those metal cars, & the token is very nice also.

Thanks very much Trezurehunter, I too love finding these old one-piece cast metal toys.
Dave

Congrats, that token is in great shape.

Thanks Cru, thankfully we never used a lot of pesticides on our parks over here.

Cool finds

Thank you Sir!

Congrats on exploiting that area most would overlook. You pulled some cool pieces. That sandy soil is mild to allow the paint to stay on those toys.

This is an important point you make LD, "exploiting that area most would overlook".
We drive by parks like this everyday and seem to forget that most of these sites had a purpose prior to becoming a park... you never know what you'll find unless you decide to switch your detector on!
Dave

Great to see an oldie getting popped out of a newer green space, liking the auto's and toys you've been digging up lately.Congrats on the Bust and Harp Token buddy.

Thanks very much for your words of support Jim, not to mention all the assistance and insight you've offered with sites in the GTA!
You never know what's going to pop up eh.
Dave

Wow, that token is a really good find!

Thanks very much buddy.

HEY ANTIQUE , NICE CAR FIND AND HARP TOO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you for your post sutphin!

Looks great I think, what a chick magnet.

Well, I don't know about that Jim ... but I'm attracted to it.

Nice fix, it's yours and will look nice in your collection. I personally think it came with black tires though. I find it amazing the time I take to clean and display most of relics and oddities that I have found. That car gave you purpose when you decided to put some time into restoring it.

I did some online research looking for an example of the one-piece cast metal type like this one. The Renwal 'plastic toy' examples all had white wheels and you're correct all the metal examples had black wheels.
Unfortunately, all I had available to salvage parts from was the '62 Matchbox Caddie.

Thanks for your post Loco, I appreciate your insight!
Dave

Very nice finds Dave. I can't remember if I have found a Renwal before or if I just remember reading about them here lol.

Thanks for your post Dave, I'd never heard of the Renwal Toy Co. of Chicago until I found this piece either.
I think it's cool when we find something that's not a common everyday find and you get to learn something new through research.
Dave

That 1820 Harp is beautiful ! Congrats.

Thanks for sharing.

Thank you for your post Taltahull... but I'd trade this for a US LC anyday!
Dave

Half penny!!! Great I'm still looking for mine!

I know finding old US coins like this in the States are as rare as Hen's teeth.

But up here in Canada, I seem to find quite a few of these.

Thanks for your post my friend,
Dave

 

[against the wind]

Congrats on some really nice finds.
I think the Gangster Whitewalls look really cool on the Restoration.

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Congrats on some really nice finds.
I think the Gangster Whitewalls look really cool on the Restoration.

Thanks very much for your support on my restoration efforts bud!
I just wanted to make it more displayable.

Best of luck to you in NYC,
Dave

 

[Carolina Tom]

Very nice finds Anti! Congrats.

As an old car guy, I'd say that you restoration is sweet. Well done all the way around.

 

[Steve in PA]

I like that token Dave, very cool!

 

[johnnyblaze]

Very cool coin man

Thanks for the info on a "Parkette"

~Blaze~