Cool little battleship, but I've never seen a Monopoly piece with smoke coming from the funnel. I'm more inclined to believe this seller, who says it's a crackerjack prize from DOWST (ie Dowst Brothers / Dowst Manufacturing Co. of Chicago):
View attachment 2199999
C-4250-3 or DOWST 1663 #24339. (For international buying see below). My responsibility ends when the item reaches that location.
www.ebay.com
Not sure about the claimed 1924 date. One of the Dowsts’ early clients in Chicago, a Norwegian named Ole Odegard, was the proprietor of the Flat Iron Laundry at 3629 N. Halsted Street. He requested they make him a unique metal charm for his business - one he could give to patrons to earn their loyalty. The Dowsts obliged, crafting several tokens that included a flat-iron (for obvious reasons), a tiny thimble, and - for reasons lost to time - a wee Scottie dog (all of which were also emblems subsequently used in the Monopoly set). These tokens were eventually produced in such large numbers, and given away so liberally, that they took on a new life of their own, often used as makeshift pieces in primitive board games of the late 19th and early 20th century.
in 1926, Theodore Dowst agreed to sell the company to one of its longtime Chicago trinket rivals, the Cosmo MFG Co. - makers of the miniature toys in Cracker Jack boxes. The new combined entity was named the Dowst Manufacturing Company.
