Figure 1.--Here is a collection of WHW meral donation pins. There were manynother styles done over time. For a closer look click on these enlargements: View 1, View 2, and View 3. |
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At first these WHW collection efforts were conducted on street corners and there were only a few HJ children. As the HJ membership increased, the number of encounters increased. The children some of whom were quite young like thegirls on the previous page. They began going door to door so they would not have to go very far from their neigborhoods. Oarents did notwant the girls in particukar going very far from hime. There were also donations in kind, such as clothing drives.
The collection cans were done in varied styles. They had handles and werevalways red. The cans weredesigned to and accomodated both bills and coins. Pf course the can rattlers got mostly penny coins. Here is an example from Bavaria. donation collections tin can, used in the Gau Bayrische Ostmark region. The lid features a small hole that is factory labeled “Papier Geld” (Paper Money), through which paper currency was passed into the can. The top section of the lid also has a slit through which coins were passed, with the serial number “29932” directly above the slit. On the bottom section of the lid is a mechanism that allows only coins to be passed into the can, without spilling coins in the event the can was held upside down. The side is stamped “Gau Bayr.-Ostmark” (Lower Bavaria).
WHW contributors were given donation pins to wear and show that they had contributed. There were many different styles. They were ininirally dine in metal, but over time there were other materials such as clay. Here aew some of the metal pins (figure 1). One source tells us, "The donation pins were issued on a limited basis. This was done so that it was obvious who had donated recently." And as the Can Rattlers became pin experts, they knew all about the pins. They could immediately see if a person had not donated recently and would really persist.
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