Dime Bag

No, this is not a piece about the late Pantera guitarist but rather a followup to the end of the 1949 Play Coins of the World post. I showed this amazing little ad piece at the tail end of that tale:



I think that might be the first example of a ten cent price point for Topps but it depends when the Play Money Pops came out and what they sold for. The Flags of the World (a.k.a. Parade) card attached to the ad shows cross-marketing at its earliest; the sets seem to have been designed to complement each other. More on Parade et al very soon at the Archives kids! But for now, some pops:



I have mentioned these before-Play Money Pops were a "big box" with a dozen lollipops and seven Play Coins enclosed. Nineteen cents is a possibility for this item, as is a quarter. The Topps Candy Division marketed the pops, whereas Topps Chewing Gum marketed the penny gum packs.

According to The Sport Americana Price Guide to the Non-Sports Cards 1930-1960 (by Christopher Benjamin, 1993 Edgewater Book Company), from which I took the above scan, the box back states there are 72 coins in denominations of 25, 50 and 100. Interestingly, there is an extant ad for the pops in the Benjamin book but I can't get a good scan so it's not shown here.

Play Money Pops may be the source of the metallic coins discussed last time, I just don't know. This all still does not answer the question of the alleged yellow 1 denomination coins. However, if you look closely at that bag of coins in, or rather, on, the ad peice, there may be a hint of yellow one one coin. Here is a close up (look between the two blue coins and then off the the right "shoulder" of the rightmost blue coin):



Very possibly a yellow coin encircled below the rest. This leads me to believe there were at least three issues of these, if not four as I can't believe there was not a nickel pack:

1) Penny Pack-120 in number 5,10,25,50 100 in green, blue, red, gold and silver.

2) Theoretical Nickel Gum Pack, with coins following penny pack mode

3) Ten Cent bag of coins, possibly as per above coins plus adding a yello 1 denomination coin for each country so 144 set total with 24 yellows added to the 120 previously issued coins. Addign yello may have been a ploy by Topps to resell old, overstocked coins and new product together.

4) Play Money Pops-72 in number, 25, 50 and 100 denominations, all in metal.

Benjamin mentions the coins that came with Play Money Pops had plastic cores with metal coatings of brass, copper or nickel. If the copper 50 and 100 pieces displayed in my last post are not from the lollipop issue, then there may be a fifth permutation out there. Crazy!