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Very grateful thanks are due to Carolyn for providing this unique Sandown die stamp

Starting in 1875, J. R. GAUNT & SON LTD in Montreal, Canada and London, Great Britain produced metalwork. (Tokens, badges, buttons) for police, railroad, military and other Governmental and private agencies on custom die stamps.   After the initial production run, the die was placed in the factory inventory, most of the older ones for 100 plus years. A few years ago, these rusted dies were sold as scrap metal; we salvaged a number of different designs, this being one of them. Made of solid steel with a raised relief this die stamp is pictured beside a US Penny for size comparison, the penny is about 18mm across.   The die stamp.......   Sandown Park Season Pass Badge Die Stamp 1905 England
Sandown Park Racecourse is located in Esher, England and since 1875 they have issued a badge or pinback for that racetrack season. The die stamp shown here reads Sandown Park, 1905, this is the first production die in a series of two for that year, the image of the horse having not been applied or embossed yet. I will leave it to the experts who collect such items to decide what type of insignia or button this was.   This is known as a hub die, a positive die or right reading die, used for the making of the working press dies.   In brief: A design is engraved into this solid steel plate or round and then hardened by heat treatment.   This hub die (the positive) is then pressed into the end of specially prepared steel cylinders to form a (negative) impression. That steel cylinder then becomes the stamping die which presses out the insignia. The hub die is actually a master die from which numerous stamping dies can be made.   The hub dies were maintained in inventory when the production run was completed as they could always be used to manufacture more working press dies. As such, these are probably the only remnants from the original insignia / button production run.    Although the finished product made by the original die might be found in collections, this hub die is unique and one of a kind. A true interpretation of the word rare.   Wear and rust is evident given its age. This companies products are known worldwide, button collector websites often offer historical information on the finished product itself

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