Philadelphia Police Issue Challenge Coin Featuring Holmes and Toby

“I would rather have Toby’s help than that of the whole detective force of London.”

– The Sign of The Four (SIGN)

In 2015, the Crime Scene Unit of the Philadelphia Police Department issued a very attractive challenge coin that features a Sherlock Holmes caricature walking a dog.

OBVERSE: (small Liberty Bell) PHILADELPHIA POLICE (small Liberty Bell) / (A pipe-smoking Sherlock Holmes caricature with deerstalker cap walking a dog on a leash towards the left, with the Philadelphia skyline in the background) / CRIME SCENE UNIT

REVERSE:  DO NOT CROSS CRIME SCENE / (clockwise, from upper left: revolver, murder scene chalk drawing, fingerprint, bullets) / DO NOT CROSS CRIME SCENE

50mm, Round, Enamel

The design of Holmes walking a dog on the obverse of this challenge coin immediately brought the image of Toby from The Sign of The Four to my mind.  Watson described the dog – “Toby proved to be an ugly, long-haired, lop-eared creature, half spaniel and half lurcher, brown and white in colour, with a very clumsy, waddling gait.”