The original coin album - on October 26, 1927 Martin Luther Beistle filed for a patent for his latest invention, a coin album with clear celluloid slides so that you can see the coins. He was a coin collector who first came up with the idea so that he could display and study his half dollar collection. These albums are the forerunner of the Wayte Raymond albums and are also the original albums that evolved into all modern coin albums.
He named the albums The Unique Coin Holder and made them at his paper/cardboard novelty manufacturing company (best known today for Halloween decorations) and sold the album covers and pages/boards himself. The patent was granted by the U.S. Patent Office on July 9, 1929. Shortly thereafter Wayte Raymond took over the Marketing and distribution. Beistle album covers had separate back and front covers with perforations for 2 binder rings that went through holes in the pages/boards. After Wayte Raymond started selling them one of the first things he did was to change the cover to a one piece wrap around binder.
Here is a picture of the patent drawings that I downloaded off of the U.S. Patent Office website. I also included pictures of one of these albums from my own collection. I’ve managed to locate and purchase 3 sets of these Unique Coin Holder covers and 6 of the original Beistle pages/boards. They are all considered very rare but can be found if you search hard enough where they are mixed in with Wayte Raymond albums and pages. Most people don’t know what they are and they think they are regular Wayte Raymond products.
In the comments below I’m going to add the text of the patent and also some pictures and explanation of the covers and boards.
I want to give a special thanks and acknowledgement to the late David Lange. Without his book “The National Coin Album & Related Products of Beistle, Raymond & Meghrig” I would have never been able to figure all this out. I had ordered the book directly from him through Amazon and he messaged me saying it was going to be late and he then delivered it to me autographed. Just a few months after I received it I learned he had passed away. Such a tragedy, he was great.
He named the albums The Unique Coin Holder and made them at his paper/cardboard novelty manufacturing company (best known today for Halloween decorations) and sold the album covers and pages/boards himself. The patent was granted by the U.S. Patent Office on July 9, 1929. Shortly thereafter Wayte Raymond took over the Marketing and distribution. Beistle album covers had separate back and front covers with perforations for 2 binder rings that went through holes in the pages/boards. After Wayte Raymond started selling them one of the first things he did was to change the cover to a one piece wrap around binder.
Here is a picture of the patent drawings that I downloaded off of the U.S. Patent Office website. I also included pictures of one of these albums from my own collection. I’ve managed to locate and purchase 3 sets of these Unique Coin Holder covers and 6 of the original Beistle pages/boards. They are all considered very rare but can be found if you search hard enough where they are mixed in with Wayte Raymond albums and pages. Most people don’t know what they are and they think they are regular Wayte Raymond products.
In the comments below I’m going to add the text of the patent and also some pictures and explanation of the covers and boards.
I want to give a special thanks and acknowledgement to the late David Lange. Without his book “The National Coin Album & Related Products of Beistle, Raymond & Meghrig” I would have never been able to figure all this out. I had ordered the book directly from him through Amazon and he messaged me saying it was going to be late and he then delivered it to me autographed. Just a few months after I received it I learned he had passed away. Such a tragedy, he was great.
The original coin album - on October 26, 1927 Martin Luther Beistle filed for a patent for his latest invention, a coin album with clear celluloid slides so that you can see the coins. He was a coin collector who first came up with the idea so that he could display and study his half dollar collection. These albums are the forerunner of the Wayte Raymond albums and are also the original albums that evolved into all modern coin albums.
He named the albums The Unique Coin Holder and made them at his paper/cardboard novelty manufacturing company (best known today for Halloween decorations) and sold the album covers and pages/boards himself. The patent was granted by the U.S. Patent Office on July 9, 1929. Shortly thereafter Wayte Raymond took over the Marketing and distribution. Beistle album covers had separate back and front covers with perforations for 2 binder rings that went through holes in the pages/boards. After Wayte Raymond started selling them one of the first things he did was to change the cover to a one piece wrap around binder.
Here is a picture of the patent drawings that I downloaded off of the U.S. Patent Office website. I also included pictures of one of these albums from my own collection. I’ve managed to locate and purchase 3 sets of these Unique Coin Holder covers and 6 of the original Beistle pages/boards. They are all considered very rare but can be found if you search hard enough where they are mixed in with Wayte Raymond albums and pages. Most people don’t know what they are and they think they are regular Wayte Raymond products.
In the comments below I’m going to add the text of the patent and also some pictures and explanation of the covers and boards.
I want to give a special thanks and acknowledgement to the late David Lange. Without his book “The National Coin Album & Related Products of Beistle, Raymond & Meghrig” I would have never been able to figure all this out. I had ordered the book directly from him through Amazon and he messaged me saying it was going to be late and he then delivered it to me autographed. Just a few months after I received it I learned he had passed away. Such a tragedy, he was great.
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The 1st one is a simple ink stamp saying “U.S. Patent Applied For”. Those were the first type that were produced.
The 2nd one says “U.S. Patent Pending” on the front and is on page/board number 13 which is for half dollar commemoratives which is the only one of the original Beistle pages with printing on it showing the name and date of the coins.
The 3rd says “Patent No. 1,719,962” stamped onto the cloth tape border and this was after the patent was granted on July 9, 1929.
The 4th says “No. 8 Made in U.S.A. Patent No. 1,719,962” in black ink on the reverse side of the page/board. The “No. 8” means it’s for 19mm diameter coins which is the size of small cents.
The 5th one pictured is a transitional one where it has the same style markings as the 4th one and it says “No. 13 Made in U.S.A. patent No. 1,719,962” but then underneath it is stamped afterwards (you can tell because it’s stamped slightly crooked) with the words “Designed and Mfg’d exclusively for Wayte Raymond-New York”. This is actually the reverse side of the same board as the 2nd one and shows that the obverse of No. 13 that states “U.S. Patent Pending” and has the name and date printed on it for the half dollar commemoratives was still being used after the patent was granted and even after Wayte Raymond took over the distribution. So this one is truly a transitional one that went through 3 transitions without redesigning the printing on its obverse.
You can tell these are the original Beistle pages because the later pages after Wayte Raymond completely took over their distribution all have a 3 digit identifier number on their reverse (as in 100 which is the Wayte Raymond number for small cents up to 210 which is for mint sets). So, if it’s unprinted and has “U.S. Patent Applied For” or “Patent No. 1,719,962” stamped on its one of the original Beistle pages/boards. Also, if it is printed (not stamped) and has just a single or double digit page/board number it’s one of the original Beistle Unique Coin Holder pages/boards. All of the ones with a 3 digit page/board number are the Wayte Raymond National Coin Album pages/boards.