The Origins of Deal Toys

Before Wall Street: The Ancient Instinct to Mark a Deal

Long before Lucite blocks and etched crystal sat proudly on desks, people were already exchanging meaningful objects to mark significant wins.

During the Hanseatic League era, merchants gave each other engraved silver plates to commemorate trade alliances. In ancient Rome, traders carved symbolic tokens and gifted statuettes after successful ventures. During the Gilded Age, bankers commissioned ornate clocks and crystal bowls to celebrate mergers and major financings.

None of this was required. It wasn’t branding. It wasn’t regulatory. It was cultural.

Because when people work hard, take risks, and close a deal that matters—they want to mark it.

That impulse to create something tangible, something lasting—that’s not new. It’s been around for centuries. Today we just call it a tombstone or a deal marker or a deal toy.

At Polaris, we believe that instinct still matters. And that every modern deal toy we make carries a thread of that legacy forward.