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Tag Archives: Toby

Philadelphia Police Issue Challenge Coin Featuring Holmes and Toby

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)

Phlly PD Challenge Coin

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

Sign of Four - Toby
Sherlock Holmes (with mustache!) walking Toby The Sign of Four – Bristol Observer – June 7, 1890

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.”