NEW YORK SUN, Monday, March 12, 1945

OLD COIN BANKS

ARE INTRIGUING
 

Among Antiques Now Being

Shown at Garden.
 

      It looks as though Grandma and Grandpa were feeding us a bit of subtle propaganda with their stories of the thriftiness of the little boys and girls of their day who stowed away all their pennies in the bank.
     They saved their pennies because the system offered was so intriguing, take it from the proof in the collection of about eighty old American mechanical coin banks in the national antique show which opened at Madison Square Garden today and continues through March 18.
     For instance, there's Jonah who sends the coin sliding into the belly of the whale, or the Indian who shoots off his gun when a lever is pressed and sends another coin into the account lodged in a bear's stomach. A rooster nods his head and gravely shakes his wattres when money is inserted in his tail. A mason's bank was so impressive that a visitor ventured a few pennies just to see one laborer shovel them into the chimney being built up by another.
     Solid Gold Music Box.
     The crude mingles with the exquisite in this show of more than $10,000,000 worth of rare objects from almost every country in the world, dating from the Third Century. One of the examples of the finest mechanical art is in a solid gold music box, enameled and set with pearls, dating from about 1800 and valued at $10,000. It opens to reveal two tiny birds of fingertip size which nod their heads, fluff their wings and set up a sweet, realistic warbling. A little eighteenth century watch has two gold figurines which chime the hour by striking a bell with hammers.
     Seekers of hard-to-get baby carriages stare with wonder at a collection of hand-made American ones, among them a surrey model, with a fringe on top, with a body built like a picket fence, dating from 1879. The first stroller type, of cane and wood, built in 1888, has a large collapsible umbrella top.