Where there Confederate Coins???

Don't know much about CW tokens, and no info from google search. Can you provide a little more background info? It's an IHC dated 1860, yet Louisiana didn't secede from the Union until January 1861, the same year the Civil War began...

Is it the CM that makes it?

Thanks!

 

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Yes, it's the counterstamps. He was a Louisianna merchant during that era and he counterstamped the X over the ONE to raise the face value of the token to TEN cents.

One coin I haven't seen mentioned is the 1861-O double eagle. Many of these were also struck at the New Orleans mint after the succession of the State. Whether by the State, or the Confederacy, or both I do not know.

 

This may sound like a silly question, but it has crossed my mind whenever I see punched coins sell for high dollars.

What is to preclude someone from fashioning or obtaining a mechanic's punch for the obverse and reverse - customized to mimic a stamp used for an authentic counterstamped specimen, punching a specimen, and then burying it for 5 years?

(To me, being a layman about counterstamped coins, it could seem easier than counterfeiting an entire coin.)

 

That can be a problem with any counterstamped coin. Someone can make up a similar stamp and stamp some more of them. But the problem is getting the stamp to be identical to the known ones. Same font, size, exact same spacing, but then what about the microscopic irregularities in the punch? Under a microscope the marks left by the new punch will not be the same will not be the same as those left by the old one. A nick here, a chipped corner there etc.

 

Understand. Thanks :thumb:

 

Side note: A couple of days ago I was in Gettysburg, and bought some, umm, Confederate coins at the visitor center store. The set contains four pieces (this http://www.channelcraft.com/images/import/CRCWC.jpg is an image from the company that makes them) including two replicas of the Bashlow cent restrike mentioned in an earlier reply. Nothing for serious numismatists, but hey, I wanted a souvenir and could not resist.

Christian

 

Those are the kind of "coins" that become "Family Heirlooms" after two generations have passed, Grandpa Crusty isn't around anymore to set anyone straight, and the various family factions are in a tizzy and ready to schism.

 

Agreed I have seen many of those "coins" or similar ones with stories about how they were in great grandfathers old trunk and how they have been handed down through the family for over a hundred years. And they also have that old Bank of the United States $1000 bill for 1840 with serial number 8894 that's also been passed down for over a hundred years (they were made in the late 1950's by the thousands. There is one genuine note but it is in the archives of the company that made the copies.)

 

and also sold by Stacks a Confederate half dime (13mm)
http://www.stacks.com/Lot/ItemDetail/73894

and dime (17.8mm)
http://www.stacks.com/Lot/ItemDetail/67004

both of Southern origin.

 

Interesting, indeed. Thanks for posting the links.

 

If I recall, there was a significent theft of gold from the New Orleans mint in the period between the Federal loss of the mint to the state of Louisiana and assumption of control by the Confederate government. Persons unknown are alleged to have minted several thousand 1861-O double eagles and removed them. Therefore, it's difficult to determine how many were actually minted, and under which regime.

 

No there was no theft, at least not by an individual. The State of Louisiana took over the mint and the bullion it contained for their own use and struck double eagles. Then when the state joined th Confederacy the new national government took over the mint and the bullion it contained and THEY struck double eagles. When the Confederacy closed down the mint in April they retained control of the bullion. All of the bullion accounts for all three controlling governments were maintained by the same person who reported the totals to both the controlling government and to the Federal government.

 

It's been a long time since I read about it, I think in the Numismatist.
The coins were minted in a "private" coining session, and the records adjusted to make the gold used "disappear". I can't recall much more about it, but it seemed a well-researched article.