Insurance Co. paperweight??

[carobran]

My dad found this at the dup we've been digging.I found a similar item online and it said it was a paperweight,though I'm not for sure this is what this is.Any ideas?It has what looks to be a lab on the front and a large building on the back.Under the building it reads THE CENTRAL MANUFACTURERS MUTUAL-INSURANCE - CO. beneath that theres the date 1876,between the 18 and 76 is a shield that reads DIVIDENDS TO PROPERTY OWNERS SINCE 1876.

 

[carobran]

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[carobran]

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[Plumbata]

Cool find man, i have one that size from 1956. I wonder if they were paperweights, or like big medallions awarded for good service (which doubled as paperweights)?

 

[Poison_Us]

That is interesting. May even clean up fairly nicely, if you desire such.

 

[wolff]

These were die struck by the Medallic Art Co, there's nothing rare about this one, I own two of them and see others for sale around.
Medallic Art made stock and custom awards, medals and medallions.
They were not specifically paperweights far as I know.
The company name on the medal was changed in June 1951, so these medals date to pre 1950, I suspect they may have been a 50th year anniversary issued advertising hand-out given to their sales reps, best customers or something, these solid bronze medals were NOT cheap to make and they would not have been just handed out like candy to anyone at will. A 50th year event (even though it doesn't SAY it's a 50th year thing) would date these to 1926. A 75th year thing would date it past the name change, so it was either somethign like a 50th year or a special custom issued medal.

This large size is very difficult and labor intensive to make- requiring many blows by the press machines to raise the detail. The dies also tended to not last as long as smaller sizes to to the heavy pounding. Here is what it looks like with the normal patina, yours looks like it was sitting buried or on the floor in the tool shed or something:

If you want to learn how these were actually made, start with part one of 4 parts of "The medal maker" a documentary film from 1929 showing every step in the making of these medals:

The medal maker