Thank you all that gave me likes for all the years I’ve been a CT member. It has taken a long time to reach this many and I’m grateful for your support. In honor of reaching this goal I am please to post this Token. This is a Hard Times Token. it is listed as Rulau HT 67. This token represents a specific historical event. The token is dated NOVR under the eagle (Phoenix) and it has the date of May 10, 1837. The NOVR refers to November 27, 1836, on which state bankers from 19 states met in New York, and set the resumption of specie payments to May 10, 1838. The Phoenix would rise from the flames of burning shinplaster. (The recession lasted a few more years and recovery did not come quickly.) Andrew Jackson, and the treasury secretary Levi Woodbury issued a resounding economic blunder known as the Specie Circular in 1836. Banks were required to accept only gold and silver in payment for land. The idea was to boost reserves, as the banks at this time were issuing piles of unpacked paper money (known as shinplaster). The law backfired as citizens hoarded their coins, and made a run on the banks. On May 10, 1837, banks in New York, suspended specie payments altogether. This meant that your paper money was now worthless. The reasons for the panic of 1837 and recession that followed our numerous and complex. Even though Wiki Is a good start on the subject the economic analysis of this period is still hotly debated today. The hoarding of official Coin always results in a Plethora I’ve token issues, in this case they were Hard Times Tokens. Almost 200 years later, these tokens are highly collectible.
You are an old timer for sure. I often google search coin questions and I get a ton of hits back to this forum, a lot go back as far as 2006. It's interesting that when I do that, I rarely see any current members screen names I recognize. Where did all the members go, where did they go? Long time passing.....(that old song). It's a little bit sad, but life goes on. Congrats on being a member for a cup of coffee or two.
