Some items are cool even if they don't have much value.

[safeinOhio]

I recently bought a collection of steel die embossers/stamps. Paid very little for it and had to struggle looking in a mirror to read what they said. Most have a mushroomed head where they had been hit with a hammer or a press. Looks like all are from the late 1900s. About 10 of them have patent dates, others the names of companies. The coolest are one from an old defunct rail road and the other is from a steam ship line. Can't find any on Ebay or the google of that vintage. There must be a collector some where looking for them. I will put them in the mall for $5 to $10 and see what happens.

[northoftheborder]

1. Those are cool, I think. I have a few, all pictures for ads, or children's story books. Don't know

what they are worth.

[Vinca]

2. If you can connect them to an area of collecting, they'd probably do well on ebay.

If they're as scarce as you say (and I've been doing this forever and I've never seen one), you might try an ebay auction with a low starting price and see what happens. You could get a big surprise. A railroadiana collector might get really excited about a railroad stamp.

[safeinOhio]

3. That might work on the RR and Steam ship co.

I'm afraid someone might wish to enhance a plain lock or key with the stamp. They could also do that with an item with an 1873 patent date. I have one that is just a plain "U.S" stamp. Looks a lot like the stamp on army guns. The U.S. stamp on an early Colt pistol or Springfield rifle could double the price of it, making it an army issued weapon. Of course they could ruin an item trying to get it right. Makes me think I'd rather sell them all, 21 of them, to a person that collects die stamps. I put one in my showcase and will see how that one goes.

In the first post I meant to say late 1800s, not 1900s