While not intentional, misinformation regarding many still banks has been perpetuated online and in some published materials through the reuse of previously published information that was incorrect. Most serious collectors want to be factual and informed, so it is important to use PRIMARY SOURCE MATERIAL when available for research. Original catalogs, newspaper articles and trade journals from the time period when the items were made are your best resources for information. The sources listed below, most of which are available at no cost, are typically very good and I encourage you to check them out.
Still Bank Collectors Club of America
https://www.stillbankclub.com/
The Still Bank Collectors Club of America (SBCCA) was founded in 1966 by a group of passionate collectors dedicated to the preservation and study of still banks.
Over the decades, the Club has published The Penny Bank Post, a highly regarded triannual journal filled with original research, collector insights, and images of rare and unusual banks. The annual SBCCA Convention, a highlight for many members, rotates locations and offers seminars, show-and-tell sessions, and buying opportunities to its members.
Club membership includes access to the members web content which hosts a wealth of bank collecting related resources. Information includes original catalogs, old advertisements, patent papers, slide shows, videos, new finds, articles and thousands of bank images. The Members Web also contains over 40 years of The Penny Bank Post and several years of convention photos.
An active club membership is required for access.
Original Catalogs
In addition to what is maintained online for SBCCA members, some original toy catalogs can be found online and are available at no cost. Two sources I have found useful are the Antique Toy Collectors of America (ATCA) website and Jim Sneed’s Old Wood Toys website.
The ATCA is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1965. Members collect antique toys representing a wide variety of interests and tastes, for example, early tin, wood, paper, and cast iron. Their club website includes a wide range of original toy or trade catalogs that have been digitized for online access. Several of these include Still Banks.
Jim Sneed is the Editor of the Schoenhut Collectors Club Newsletter. His Old Wood Toys website includes over 586 pages of toy articles, identification guides, and old toys catalogs with
more than 10,000 photos of old toys and dolls.
An active club membership IS NOT required to access these online catalogs.
Current Values
Many guide books include a price guide, but these reflect a snapshot of values at the time the book was published. The asking prices for items available at online auction side may not be realistic. To learn what items are selling for today you need to review recently SOLD items.
The LiveAuctioneers’ Auction Price Results Database is a free research tool for those who want to buy or sell. Access 29 million art, antique, jewelry, furniture, collectible, and fashion results that were auctioned off from thousands of global auction houses. Search by keyword and refine by auction house, location, and more to research and determine the value of items in your existing or future collection. These results date back to 1999.
This service is provided at no cost; however, users will need to create a free user profile.
Vintage Magazines and Directories
Google Books is a service provided by Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical character recognition (OCR), and stored in its digital database.
Books are provided either by publishers and authors through the Google Books Partner Program or by Google’s library partners through the Library Project. Additionally, Google has partnered with a number of magazine publishers to digitize their archives.
This service is provided at no cost.
Patent Information
Google Patents indexes more than 87 million patents and patent applications with full text from 17 patent offices.
These documents include the entire collection of granted patents and published patent applications from each database (which belong to the public domain). US patent documents date back to 1790, EPO and WIPO to 1978. Optical character recognition (OCR) has been performed on the older US patents to make them searchable and Google Translate has been used on all non-English patents to make the English translations searchable.
Patents with only non-English text have been machine-translated to English and indexed, so you can search patent publications using only English keywords.
This service is provided at no cost.
Newspapers
The largest online newspaper archive, established in 2012. Used by millions every month for historical research, genealogy and family history, true crime, journalism, entertainment, and nostalgia. Search for national and local news, sports, advertisements, entertainment, fashion and lifestyle pages, comics, obituaries, marriage announcements, birth announcements, social pages, and more. Everything you’d expect to find in the paper—and maybe something you didn’t!
An active subscription is required for access.
City Directories
Ancestry.com is a subscription-based genealogy research website and DNA product with over 16 billion records online. The majority of records are from the United States, though records are being added for other countries, such as Canada, the UK, and other European countries.
Ancestry.com has indexed and scanned all of the United States Federal Census records from 1790 through 1940 as well as numerous City Directories. As a basic subscriber you can access these records online.
An active subscription is required for access.
Library Catalogs
WorldCat.org is a resource for locating unique, trustworthy materials that you often can’t find anywhere except in a library. By connecting thousands of libraries’ collections in one place, WorldCat.org makes it easy for you to browse the world’s libraries from one search box.
Search, click on a result, and you’ll see a list of libraries that have indicated they have that resource. From there, you can either directly access online content or link to the catalog of a library near you for information about how to get the item. If what you want is available only from a library far away from you, don’t panic. Save the link to the item and ask your local library if they can get it for you through interlibrary loan.
This service is provided at no cost.
