Civil War Tokens

[Eastender]

A couple of days ago I found an 1863 Civil War token issued by Story & Southworth Grocers NYC. It was my fourth Civil War era token from this site. I will confess, when I first popped it out of the ground, I was disappointed because I thought that this site had given me my third Flying Eagle Cent. At this site, tokens, IHP, and 2 cent pieces all seem to hang out together along with an occasional seated dime. It's actually an interesting story, how a shortage of pennies during the Civil War drove the private production of small copper change, much like late 1800s Britain and the Conder series. In NYC, the 3rd Ave. train was taking privately issued tokens for fare, then the issuer would not redeem them for US coinage! Incidents such as this contributed to the US Government outlawing the issuing of private coinage in 1864.

I just researched these tokens, and was surprised to find out that this latest one has a rarity index of 3 on the Fuld Scale, meaning less than 2,000 are known to exist. So Detector Gods, I take back my earlier misgivings please forgive me. Attached are pics of the earlier tokens this site has given to me. I not only like the Monitor design of the Our Navy token (of which I have found two), I also like the silver company it was keeping. Going back there this weekend to try my luck again.

My earliest tokens are two different Hard Times Tokens from the 1830s, the NYC Mercantile Exchange and the Andrew Jackson. I like these because they are the size of contemporary US large cents. I also have some large tokens from the 1900s.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

I'd take tokens over coins any day . Good job.

 

[MasonDixonMding]

Love tokens and your are great.
Wish you luck on your return.

 

[History Hound 1]

Congrats on the tokens - cool pieces of history that are always a welcomed find. Best of luck this weekend.

 

[Digger RJ]

A couple of days ago I found an 1863 Civil War token issued by Story & Southworth Grocers NYC. It was my fourth Civil War era token from this site. I will confess, when I first popped it out of the ground, I was disappointed because I thought that this site had given me my third Flying Eagle Cent. At this site, tokens, IHP, and 2 cent pieces all seem to hang out together along with an occasional seated dime. It's actually an interesting story, how a shortage of pennies during the Civil War drove the private production of small copper change, much like late 1800s Britain and the Conder series. In NYC, the 3rd Ave. train was taking privately issued tokens for fare, then the issuer would not redeem them for US coinage! Incidents such as this contributed to the US Government outlawing the issuing of private coinage in 1864.

I just researched these tokens, and was surprised to find out that this latest one has a rarity index of 3 on the Fuld Scale, meaning less than 2,000 are known to exist. So Detector Gods, I take back my earlier misgivings please forgive me. Attached are pics of the earlier tokens this site has given to me. I not only like the Monitor design of the Our Navy token (of which I have found two), I also like the silver company it was keeping. Going back there this weekend to try my luck again.

My earliest tokens are two different Hard Times Tokens from the 1830s, the NYC Mercantile Exchange and the Andrew Jackson. I like these because they are the size of contemporary US large cents. I also have some large tokens from the 1900s.

Very Cool!!!! Congrats!!!!