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4 encased cents, reverse of indian head, off center, horseshoe and a vulcanite encased

Earl Fankhauser The Penny Man

Encased 1964 Dime - Obverse reads: KEEP ME AND NEVER GO BROKE"

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Reverse reads: "THE FANKHAUSERS / FORT WAYNE, IND." in small letters around the bottom edge: "EARL FANKHAUSER FORT WAYNE I"

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Earl Fankhauser is the best known encased coin salesman. A majority of the pieces he sold have, "Earl Fankhauser Fort Wayne, IND." in tiny letters across the bottom rim. The content in green on this page is an original work by Bryan Ryker and is reproduced here with his permission. Minor formatting changes have been made to update the HTML from 1997. The page was originally a GeoCities Site which is now gone. Links that do not work have been removed as well.

Bryan Ryker is still available today if you would like to reach out to him with questions or comments about Fankhuauser encased coins or the catalog of Fankhauser pieces he published. He enjoys hearing from other collectors. He may be reached at encased.coins@juno.com

Hi! I am a researcher and collector of encased coins made for Earl Fankhauser, "The Penny Man," of Fort Wayne, Indiana.


Head and shoulder image of Earl Fankhauser the Penny Man

(Earl Fankhauser in about 1955)


You may ask, "What is an encased coin?" It's a coin (usually a cent) that has a ring of some material clenched around it. The rings are usually made of aluminum, but sometimes other materials were used. One side of the aluminum ring usually has a good luck horseshoe with the words "KEEP ME AND NEVER GO BROKE" or "KEEP ME AND HAVE GOOD LUCK" coined into it. The other side would have whatever inscription the customer wanted -- such as a business advertisement, a souvenir message, or someone's personal information to be used as a calling card.

good luck penny Earl Fankhauser

Encased coins are not to be confused with the kind of thing you could find in bus and train stations, where for a quarter you could dial up one letter at a time and make a single piece saying whatever message you wanted. Encased coins were made 500 to 1,000 or more at a time in large coining presses using engraved dies. A blank aluminum ring, like a washer, would be put in the press, and a coin set in the middle. The pressure used to stamp the message into the aluminum ring also caused the ring to clench the coin -- often so tightly the coin would buckle.

I Like Ike Encased Cent

So who was Earl Fankhauser? He was the most prolific creator of encased coins that ever lived. From 1948 to 1965 he had over 650 different encased coins made, covering topics from car dealers (Ford, Plymouth, Rambler, ...), to Presidential campaigns ("I Like Ike", "In '60 it's Lodge with Nixon", "Kennedy/Johnson", ...), to the Boy Scouts, insurance salesmen, drug stores, gas stations, milkmen, ... just about anything you can imagine. One of my favorites was for a fish market. Their slogan was "If you can't make both ends meat, make one fish!"

In about 1954 Fankhauser began "signing" the different pieces he sold. In tiny letters along the bottom rim he put "EARL FANKHAUSER FORT WAYNE 1". Because of this and the vast number of different pieces he sold, his name is well known among collectors.


God Is Love lucky Penny Earl Fankhauser Signiture Line on an encased cent

Note in first picture text too small to read - then enlarged (added BDP).


Earl Fankhauser selling encased to bank

I've written a book about Earl Fankhauser's work with encased coins. It's 80 pages and tells the story of his life and a little about how encased coins were made. He was a very colorful person, like the time he got locked in the bank and made the front page of the paper (photo below). It catalogs the 673 different pieces he had made that I know of and gives an idea of their relative values. As these pieces have become more collectible, prices have been rising. There are also background stories about some of the pieces. It's $8.00, and I pay the postage. If you are interested in a copy, send me a note below. Let me know if you would like it signed.

Old Fort Coin Club Encased Gold Color
Old Fort Coin Club Encased Green  Color Encasement

A while ago I had a lot of fun having a new encased coin made to commemorate the 40th anniversary of our local coin club, the Old Fort Coin Club. I only had 125 pairs of these horseshoe-shaped pieces made, and each piece has different die work. The green piece has a "KEEP ME AND NEVER GO BROKE" reverse. The gold piece has a "KEEP ME AND HAVE GOOD LUCK" reverse. They're all sold now.

Earl Fankhauser Civil War Cent

Made any exciting discoveries lately? Since I wrote the catalog, only FIVE "new" (Earl Fankhauser) pieces have been discovered.

The first new Fankhauser piece was discovered in June 1997 by Jim Lasniczak: "Ray Holmes // 22527 Van Dyke Ave. / Warren, Mich. MI-WAR-HO-11 - 1960D Cent"

Here is a scan of the second new piece. It was discovered in August, 1999 by Carl Bangora:


Earl Fankhauser piece

(IN)-(FWA)-LI-09  1956D Cent

In October, 1999 Carl Bangora discovered a third new piece: Long Island // Hot Dogs / 133 W. Main St.  (IN)-(FWA)-LO-19 - 1953D Cent

Jim Lasniczak found the fourth new piece in August, 2000: Hollywood Package Store / Eugene & Dorothy // 1333 S. Lafayette (IN)-(FWA)-HO-42 - 1954D Cent

Madge Hunt

The most recent discovery was made in February, 2003 by Bob Perdue. He found it on Ebay:(IN)-(FWA)-HU-35 - 1956D Cent

The "new" pieces pictured above have Earl Fankhauser's signature at the bottom, so we know they were made for him. Because he did not manufacture his pieces himself (they were made by the Osborne Coinage Company in Cincinnati, Ohio), there are many encased coins that have the same "look" as his pieces but are not Fankhauser pieces.

I have been working for the last several years on capturing the history of the encased coins made by the Osborne Coinage Company. They were gracious enough to grant me access to their production records, which fortunately were not destroyed. The records show who a piece was made for when it was made and how many were made. This is information never before available to collectors! If you would like to look through them, just click here: Osborne Coinage Company production records

I enjoy hearing from other collectors or curious web browsers. Click on my name below to send me an e-mail.

Happy hunting!

LINKS:

Links come and go on the internet so if one of these has gone, please let me know. If there is another site about encased, please forward the link.

Visit Rod Sell's page with many other pictures of encased coins, including many encased foreign coins. Learn about bi-metallic coins at his page for the Worldwide Bi-Metallic Collectors Club. Check it out - there are many neat pieces pictured here.

Glyn Farber's web page is all about Louisiana encased coins: Louisiana encased.


The encased dime at the top of the page is from my collection. I also have an encased nickel, (see below) that is an Earl Fankhauser piece. The majority of encased that Earl sold were 1.25 inches in diameter. The dime fits that size. The nickel, however, is 35 MM or 1 3/8 inches. In looking at the Osborne Coin Company work orders from Earl Fankhauser, I do not see the dime and or the nickel. There are two other nickels listed. One for Dr. Liechty, an optometrist, and the other for the Pagoda Inn.

1958 Jefferson nickel encased - Obverse reads: "KEEP ME AND NEVER GO BROKE"

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Reverse reads: ""MEIER T.V. CENTER / 1214 WELLS A 3162 / FORT WAYNE, IND." in small letters around the bottom edge: "EARL FANKHAUSER FORT WAYNE I"

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Bryan has also written an article about Rexdale Publishing Encased.

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