Nazi Lucky Charm?

[mensa-sean]

Hi all.

Going through my Grandfather's WW2 memoribilia, and found this coin. When I did a Google search, I found someone on this site who posted about the same type coin in 1999, but never received a reply. Any ideas? It's obviously a good luck charm; based on the "Hoodoo" reference and "High John the Conqueror", I'm wondering if it didn't come out of the Caribbean, but I have no evidence that my Grandfather ever went there.

Any ideas?

 

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[buscadero]

Sean: I don't believe that your Token has anything to do w/ the Nazis. That sign was used as a Good Luck Symbol for many years.

The "Couple" embracing look to be closer to the 1920's. Why not check out that Patent Number? That should tell you something!



Hope you find out, Welcome to TN!!!!!

Joe

 

[BjC]

No that token has nothing to do with the Nazi regime, In fact the Swastika has been around for thousands of years and was a symbol for peace, hope and good luck... it was the Nazi's that gave the swastika it's negative reputation.

Nice find btw

 

[MiddenMonster]

The swastika on the coin is also different from the Nazi swastika. The Nazi swastika, from the upper left went down, across right, down. From the upper right it went across left, down, across left. The one shown on the coin is exacty opposite. The Hindu swastika looks like a Nazi swastika, except that there are four dots between the lines in the center:

The Romans used a swastika like yours, however:

I've been playing around with the U.S. Patent Office page, so I thought I'd try my luck with this one. Since patent numbers are 7 digits in length, I ran 10 searches, plugging in the numbers 0-9 before the numbers on the coin: 092244. I thought there would be a Rockford Files moment, but nothing came back that fit the description. Thinking that the first "2" might be a 3, I repeated the process, but no Rockford Files moment there, either.

 

[mojjax]

There was a swastika club back around the turn of the century - just some sweet old ladies that would meet and drink tea - talk about doing good deeds or something . I think they changed their name around WW ll . Here's a link to some other uses :

http://www.uic.edu/classes/engl/engl160/Readings/Swastika.htm

 

[blurr]

Hey Sean,

Your token like everyone else noted, isn't related to Nazism. It is a good luck token crammed with just about every superstitious theme imaginable. Four leafed clover, horseshoe, hoodoo, lodestone, and swastika to name a few. High John The Conqueror is a plant root used to concoct good luck potions. Couldn't find a match for your token, but a very nice little coin all the same!!!

John

 

[dg39]

Pre World War two, good luck token. 1900 to 1920's..

 

[Rusted_Iron]

From an occult standpoint I believe the swastika (sun wheel) with the spokes to the left, as on your token, represented the Feminine principle, while the one going to the right was the Masculine principle. Then again sometimes the people who made these old good luck charms didn't know that.

Hitler, however, used his in-depth occult knowledge to make a deliberate choice of the sun wheel going to the right.

 

[Mackaydon]

MiddenMonster
You may also want to check out 93244; your first '2' looks like it could be a '3'.
Don......

 

[MiddenMonster]

MiddenMonster
You may also want to check out 93244; your first '2' looks like it could be a '3'.

I ran it both ways. I started with x092244, where x is the numbers 0-9 over 10 searches. Then I repeated the search using x093244. If I remember correctly, nothing was found when 8 and 9 were plugged in for x in both searches. For those who want to give it a try, here's the link for the Patent Office search page:

http://www.uspto.gov/main/profiles/acadres.htm

I clicked on http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html (SEARCH patents now), and the performed simple searches. But there also advanced searches and help for searches that I didn't try. Looks like it could be quite a handy tool for identifying some finds, but apparently not this one.

 

[Mackaydon]

MM:
Great info; thanks.
Don......

 

[PBK]

The patent number begins with a capital D, indicating that it is a design patent. The number range— 91258 to 91478— is that of the year 1934.

The correct patent number is D93244, issued on September 4, 1934. Here's a link to patent drawings which confirm this identification:

http://patimg1.uspto.gov/.piw?Docid...&SectionNum=&idkey=NONE&Input=View+first+page

 

[buscadero]

My Question is: Why would someone go to the trouble & expense of a Patent for a "Lucky Piece"?


Joe

 

[Siegfried Schlagrule]

design patents were and are a cheaper fee than regular patents but you still get some protection for your idea. imagine the guy who got a design patent for the hula hoop or the pet rock. Royalties for a $6-$500 fee versus royalties for a $1000 to $10000 fee and more if you get the international patent. Patented or not on a fad idea you are best to produce and sell the hell out of them and drop out to let the copycats go broke. exanimo, ss

 

[MiddenMonster]

The patent number begins with a capital D, indicating that it is a design patent. The number range— 91258 to 91478— is that of the year 1934.

The correct patent number is D93244, issued on September 4, 1934. Here's a link to patent drawings which confirm this identification:

Cool! Thanks for clearing that up. I would never have guessed that the first part of the patent number was a "D". Looks like you got the Rockford Files moment! And thanks to Morris Shapiro, of Memphis, Tennesee and Shelby County for patenting the coin and leaving a historical trail for us to follow. February 17, 1934 was right in the middle of the Great Depression. I wonder if he sold a lot of these, and if he did was it because of the Depression and people wanted luck, or in spite of the Depression and people had more money at their disposal than the history books would have us believe. I bet that attorney, John W. Farley made out pretty good on this either way. I noticed that the patent number displays as "D0093244", which is 8 characters in length. If you search for "D93244", the number you provided, the site converts it to the 8 character format (D0093244). If you search using "0093244", it converts it to "00093244", also 8 characters and you get a feed water puirifier. The "D" makes all the difference.

 

[Rusty Sheriffs Badge]

And one more tid bit... The inventor of the token I believe was a student of the University of Rochestor.

http://www.rochester.edu/pr/Review/V64N1/cn-grad.html

 

[PBK]

And one more tid bit... The inventor of the token I believe was a student of the University of Rochestor.
http://www.rochester.edu/pr/Review/V64N1/cn-grad.html

I think that must have been a different Morris Shapiro, as suggested by his bio from the same University of Rochester Review website — http://www.rochester.edu/pr/Review/V64N1/cn-u-ss.html

'34
Morris Shapiro '34 (Mas), a professor emeritus of surgery and emergency medicine at the School of Medicine and Dentistry, had a new conference room at Strong Memorial Hospital named in his honor. He was also honored by the Jewish community of Rochester for endowing an operating room at the Schneider Children's Hospital in Israel. In addition, he received the highest awards of the Monroe County Medical Society and the Rochester Academy of Medicine: the Edward Mott Moore Award and the Albert David Kaiser Medal.


Somehow, it seems a bit unlikely that such an individual would have moonlighted by designing swastika good luck medals.