Sondinger Polyphon

Charles Sondinger had a shop on 25 rue d'Hauteville in Paris where he sold "automatic music machines working on a 10 centime coin". His Polyphon line used laminated steel interchangeable plates to play any kind of music. The advertisement shown is from Revue Musicale Sainte Cécile, September 6, 1901. Click on the picture to see an enlargement.

In 1889, Gustav Adolph Brachhausen and Ernst Paul Rießner founded the firm of Brachhausen & Rießner in Waren near Leipzig. The firm produced coin operated music boxes as well as the records it used. In 1890, Brachhausen & Rießner introduced the Polyphon on the Leipziger Herbstmesse of 1890, where it won a silver medal. In 1895, the name of the company was changed to Polyphon-Musikwerke AG. In 1900, when Sondinger was appointed the agent for France of Polyphon, it already built 40 000 music boxes annually. At the outbreak of the first world war, the Polyphon company was expropriated by the French state as an "enemy asset".

The weight and diameter of the token is the same as the 10 centimes coins 1852-1921. However, from 1914 much smaller copper-nickel coins were replacing the bronzes. The token may have been used as a replacement of a bronze as they were disappearing. However, it is also possible that the tokens were sold in volume at a discount e.g. to party organisers. The centre of side 2 could have been meant to engrave the name of the music venue.

Sondinger Polyphon
	Filename	SPP001
	Side 1	CHARLES * SONDINGER * and PARIS
	Side 2	Pearl circle
	Manufacture	Bronze
	Size (mm)	30
	Weight (grams)	10
	Notes
	Source	maxmissy