Collins wrench

[shortfuse]

New member here...

I recently acquired an old Collins monkey wrench.  The wrench is in very good condition, so I did some searching to find out more about the Collins company and wrenches.  I found a lot of info on them, but some questions went unanswered.  I couldn't find out when they ceased manufacturing the wrenches like mine and have no idea of it's value.  Apparently, they manufactured a lot of them, so they are most likely plentiful.

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

[Papaw]

First look here- http://www.yesteryearstools.com/Yesteryears%20Tools/Collins%20Pt.%201.html

Read about the lawsuit between Coes and Collins, which Collins won, but only after long enough for Coes to become dominant in the monkey wrench realm.
Read also - http://wkfinetools.com/hUS-mechTools/CoesWrench/pressBooks/inPress-Coes.asp

[mikeswrenches]

For what it's worth there was one that sold at Donnelly's auction this year for $163.00.  That one was also marked with a railroad stamp. Don't know whether it was the Collins name or the railroad name that drove the price.

Mike

[shortfuse]

First look here- http://www.yesteryearstools.com/Yesteryears%20Tools/Collins%20Pt.%201.html

Read about the lawsuit between Coes and Collins, which Collins won, but only after long enough for Coes to become dominant in the monkey wrench realm.
Read also - http://wkfinetools.com/hUS-mechTools/CoesWrench/pressBooks/inPress-Coes.asp

Papaw, thanks for the links.  I had read the first one (yesteryear) and an account of the lawsuit.  I wonder when Collins ceased making the wrenches.  I saw where the axe part of the company ceased operations in the 1966.

[shortfuse]

For what it's worth there was one that sold at Donnelly's auction this year for $163.00.  That one was also marked with a railroad stamp. Don't know whether it was the Collins name or the railroad name that drove the price.

Mike

Mike, thanks for the insight on the auction price.  That would be nice.  I paid $17.50 for mine, but have no intention of selling it.  Much too nice to look at.  That is one sturdily build wrench.  It's a wall-hanger.

[mvwcnews]

First look here- http://www.yesteryearstools.com/Yesteryears%20Tools/Collins%20Pt.%201.html

Read about the lawsuit between Coes and Collins, which Collins won, but only after long enough for Coes to become dominant in the monkey wrench realm.
Read also - http://wkfinetools.com/hUS-mechTools/CoesWrench/pressBooks/inPress-Coes.asp

Actually, Collins won the first couple of rounds but eventually lost the last one.  Loring Coes finally hired Thomas H Dodge, who was one of the best patent attorneys going at the time & who took advantage of a related Supreme Court decision on patent provisions to go back & retry the whole issue -- taking it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.  As Herb Page noted in his Coes book, by the time the issue was settled, the original patents in contention had all become public domain & Coes wrench designs had  moved on to the "Knife Handle" style.  But Loring Coes had avoided having to pay royalties to Collins Co.  (Sounds like today's patent infringement lawsuits between high tech companies, doesn't it?)

I'm reading up on this as background for a longish piece on George Carpenter Taft which will appear in the March  2016 MVWC Newsletter.   Loring Coes had used Taft's patents as a basis for some of his designs in the 1870s  (most notably  the Mechanics Wrench which used Taft's Nov. 1863 patent & subsequent reissues) & Taft was one of the witnesses deposed during the Collins / Coes litigation.