"I take the responsibility" HT-70 Hard Time Token" (NGC MS-65 BN)

In the early 1830s there were a lot of unofficial tokens used as currency, and many of them contained excellent political satire. Amongst the most famous is this one making fun of President Andrew Jackson for his wrecking of the economy through his attacks on the National Bank.



On the obverse is Andrew Jackson with sword in hand, raiding the coffer of the bank and stealing the wealth and credit of the nation.

The reverse features the most accurate likeness of Andrew Jackson on any coin, with the letters of his honorary Harvard degree on him. You can see his "Roman firmness" so clearly on his profile that the legend stating the same is almost unnecessary.

Please feel free to post any hard time tokens or any private tokens from the 19th century.

 

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@johnmilton posts about these got me interested in them. These are an absolute wealth of political satire. I have this same token though not nearly as nice as yours. Wish I had photo's of my political hard times tokens at work with me.... That is a very nice one.

 

Similar message of satire. One of the earliest representations of the Democratic Donkey, which was not intended as a compliment.

 

I love this one too. Without a doubt one of the more iconic of hard time tokens.

 

Here is another.