A nicely detailed gold miniature with a working drawer.

Made by Reutter porcelain in Germany featuring a beautiful brass finish on an intricately carved front. Compare this $15 item to the $60 Bodo Hennig (also German) above which has all moving parts.

A stunning silver miniature made by Bodo Hennig of Germany. This cost me $60 retail and was worth every penny for it's heavy silver construction, detailed ornamentation, and all working parts. Circa 1990's.

*A Top Ten Favorite

A beautiful and unique piece from England in that it's not only made of pewter (one of only two in my collection), but it's also a thimble. 

Pewter Mini

A nice lead free pewter miniature, one of only two in my collection. Drawer opens.

The bottom says 58 -4V with what looks like a creamer pitcher, and the words "lead free pewter." I'm presuming this is made by some high class designer, but frankly the design is less than optimal. Compare this item to the Bodo Hennig silver or the other pewter thimble and you'll see what I mean.

This miniature is the one most often sold at dollhouse stores, also available in black. Considering how ubiquitous it is, you'd think it would be really well designed, but in my opinion it's pretty common. 

This vintage working miniature represents  early manual cash registers. An interesting piece and possibly one of a kind. Geobra, Made in West Germany.

Nice detailing and a built in pencil sharpener make this a smart looking miniature. There is little value despite many seller's beliefs that it's an "antique." 

A tiny day by day calendar to mark today's date. This was originally attached to something as evidenced by the screws on the bottom. Made in Japan.

Circa 1910 Mesh Bank 

Made by Arcade 1910 to 1925 and can be found in the Moore Penny Bank Book, which explains why it has so far always sold for over $100. Red with gold mesh (in this case worn off); 3 3/4 inches tall.  

Minnehaha Falls Copper Thrift Bank

This stunning copper bank is probably a tourist chachki and weighs in at a weighty 14 ounces but is only 2.5" high. Hand etched date of August 1, 1926, Minneapolis, MN, although of course that could be faked.

More on the Minnehaha

This antique is from the early 1900's and was made in the USA by the Durable Toy & Novelty Company. The drawings & graphics are quite lovely.

This register is an unusual gold color, and has an odd "receipt" up on top. Another odd thing is that while most toy registers have keys that either match actual coins (nickel, dime etc) or digital amounts (10, 20, 30) this one mixes its metaphors, using both. What WERE they thinking?

This is one of very few actual antique toys that I own. Excellent detailing make this a beautiful collectible. Click the thumbnail to see the lithography.

This clock is also available in a non-branded gold version without the "Timex" brand on it.

What's really cool about these two clocks? The white metal Timex version (on top) has the Timex name, "Quartz" and Movement Made in Japan. It's got fancier hands too. The gold version however has the VERY cool characteristic of having dollar signs ($) at the 3 PM and 9 PM spots.

Iron Reproduction 

This is a reproduction of an early cast iron bank. It's worth maybe $5, but darn if I don't see sellers trying to get $50 and up for them. I bought it at a flea market. I heard on Antiques Roadshow that one way to tell fake iron reproductions was that the detailing was low quality. This reproduction certainly lives up to that standard.

These are somewhat rare, but not really worth much more than about $25. I like it because it's all metal and clearly made in an earlier time. According to Kovels it's worth $95 which it may have been pre-eBay. Made in good old Chicago, Made in USA - how rare is that?

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Adult Novelty

This is what's called an adult novelty because it's not a toy, but doesn't really have any function except to be cool. Cost about $100 about 15 years ago. It's well made with metal innards you can look at and a marble shelf area.

Buddy L (1938)

The pressed steel Buddy-L cash registers were in the 1938 and 1939 Buddy-L catalogs. It was called a recording tape cash register and was catalog #856 in 1938 and #956 in 1939. The 1939 catalog description reads: "A new one! The cash register actually registers the amount and completes the juvenile sale by furnishing a printed tape of the amount with the words, 'Thank You,' on it. A perfect plaything for the children playing store, and dandy to use with our #861 Motor Market. With this cash register we furnish paper play money of various denominations." Thank you to Laura at www.BuddyKToys.com  for looking up this information for me in their catalogues.

More on the origins of the Buddy L and pictures of the actual cash register that it is designed to look like.

National Cash Register was the premier cash register maker for most of the century. This bank was created in 1984 to celebrate their 100th anniversary. More details.