299: JAMES OLIVER CHILLED PLOW ADVERTISING TRIBUTE FOB

Obverse depicts Oliver over his name, reverse with raised lettering 'Oliver gave to the world the Chilled Plow.'

Background on Oliver's Chilled Plow by Patrick J. Furlong of the Indiana Historical Society: 'Oliver experimented with building a better plow, and in 1857, he received a patent for "An Improvement in Chilling Plowshares." A chill is a metal mold or portion of a mold in which molten metal is cooled rapidly and the surface of the metal is hardened. By using an iron "chill" in a portion of the sand mold, Oliver produced a hard surface on the cast iron plowshare, the cutting edge of the plow blade. The resulting plowshare retained its sharp cutting edge much better than traditional plows, and the cast iron was less brittle than usual because the interior portion of the iron cooled slowly.'
Measures 1.75 inches x 1.5 inches.
Average to good condition, some silver finish loss evident, as shown.
$40 - $80