Quote from Pioneer on January 12, 2014, 4:51 pm

I acquired this piece out of interest in German involvement in the US in the 1800s and the many So-Called Dollars with German DieSinkers. From what I understand, this piece is from a fundraising fair for German Hospitals (or perhaps a German hospital pictured on the obverse), held in New York City Feb 18-26, 1889. The reverse translates into English as "In Memory of the Fair for all the best (ie. to improve) German Hospitals." John Raymond has this listed as a 39.6mm so-called dollar in his unlisted SCD section (#82a). I did some hunting in the New York Times archive and did fine articles about this Fair, but i'm not sure who made the SCD. I have another piece, separate but along a similar theme -- a silvered Fruitvale California piece celebrating a German Retirement Home. All in all, this second piece fits with my Swiss Colony Silver (European origin), celebrates something in California, and just happens to be a piece celebrating the start of Wine Agriculture in the Napa Valley.

When I acquired this piece (the die maker was C.L. Chapelle) I could find little about him. He also did a nice piece for the Daguerretype Association Semi Centennial. It was "The Semi-Centennial of Photograhy" in August 1889. Also in New York. What was odd was purchasing HK-623 Stockton Courthouse from Jeff a few years back and finding out that this C.L. Chapelle who made these two New York tokens in 1889 also made the 1891 California Stockton Court House So Called Dollar. My piece is marked with microscopic letters on the obverse under the base of the building C.L.Chapelle