Plastics. A wide class of materials made of chemical polymers and other components, both natural and synthetic (including resins, caseins and such). Medallic items have been made of plastics – often in color (by adding a dye to the plastic) – and formed by molding or casting. The composition is more suitable for such items as sales tax tokens; these were made of plastics in America shortly after World War II. Plastics was infrequently considered as a coin or medal composition substitution in wartime.

Pattern cents in plastic were made in the United States in 1942, but for many reasons it was not a serious coin media. The U.S., of course, chose a zinc-coated steel cent as the substitute composition in World War II.

The Rochester Numismatic Association had a custom of issuing a medal for each club president since 1913. It continued the tradition, even in difficult times of the depression. But for World War II bronze was a strategic war material and unavailable for medals. It prepared the dies for the presidents during the war and issued a plastic medal at the time, replacing these with bronze medals when the material became available after the war.

See also bakelite, epoxy, thermoplastic.