Earl Fankhauser The Penny Man

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

(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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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:

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

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.