Help Two CT'ers Work Out a Token Trade

Duly noted.

Yes, I am nickel-and-diming him, for sure.

But it is all in good spirit, so far. Won't impede the swap. He's preparing the Peacock to fly today. The Monitor sails from here on Friday or Saturday.

I'm OK with the deal as an even swap, pending, of course, the mutual satisfaction of both parties.

In fact, even in the (now seemingly unlikely) event that my interests "win" in the poll, I hereby relinquish my "shakedown fee".

But I'll still have the satisfaction of gloating just a tiny bit.

So yes, it's "Even Stevens" - but the question now is whether or not @jester3681 still owes LordM a virtual, hypothetical twenty bucks.

 

I remember passing up many nice tokens in the days when I was keeping tight focus on "sets". Nowadays I don't have to. I'm free! (Or "freestyle", anyway.)

In my "Eclectic Box" era, as y'all have seen, I grab whatever catches my fancy, whether it be a coin, token, jeton, or medal.

So you could say I'm a "jack of all trades" and the absolute opposite of a specialist.

The fact that I would somehow land upon a Civil War token that was desired by someone who is a specialist and does have a specialized collection is rather flattering. Goes to show that my gut instincts are occasionally sound, even when I don't completely know everything about the item I'm buying.

Of course, I did have some luck in the acquisition of the Monitor token, too. Another token specialist ("Broadstruck" on Collectors Universe) had given me a heads-up on it, and I nabbed it on eBay for less than half of what it had fetched in the 2010 Stacks-Bowers Baltimore sale.

(Had I paid through the nose for it, I'd no doubt have been even more mulish and stubborn a swapper here.)

 

The Monitor has sailed off to its new destination this morning.

I believe I'll be seeing the Peacock tomorrow and am very much looking forward to it.

@jester3681 (or anyone else) - does anybody know the significance (if any) of the clock hands being at 9:12?

912 is my area code, as it happens. Must be destiny, huh?

 

No. Actually it's better that the Peacock is in PCGS plastic, particularly since it has a TrueView image. The majority of my Eclectic Box is in PCGS plastic, actually, except for the ancient coins.

The $20-25 shakedown attempt was simply my "sentimental detachment tax", since I was pretty fond of the Monitor piece for the same reason you mentioned (history, plus I like ship-themed pieces). I initially wasn't quite prepared to do an even swap, though I came around eventually.

I liked the Peacock right from the start when he first offered it, but did not know much about it and initially did not realize that it was not a true HTT struck in 1837, as the date on the token itself indicates. The fact that it's 75 years "newer" than that was only a mild disappointment at first, and I came around to that, too - it really makes little difference in the long run.

It's mostly about aesthetic appeal, and the Peacock piece has that in spades. I believe I will be seeing it in hand later today (Saturday).

And if John likes the Monitor in hand, which I think he will, very soon, and it fills a hole in his collection, well, then we'll have ourselves a win-win scenario. I like those.

Getting rid of one coin to add another is just a reality of my collecting. It's a necessity on my budget. If I didn't sell or swap stuff away to make new additions, all I could afford to collect would be Statehood quarters or maybe G-VG Lincoln cents minus the keys.

By keeping a small, rotating collection of no more than 20 (now 25) pieces, I can afford to keep gradually "trading up". It's the only way I've been able to afford some of the $500+ material I have. This was perhaps more of a "lateral" trade, but in some ways an upgrade, too.

 

The Peacock has arrived.

I have not opened the package just yet.

 

I'm saving my "Peacock moment" until I'm somewhere with better light.

 

On my CU forum thread about this swap, "epcjimi1" shared these pictures.

"Peacock Door at the C.D.Peacock Jewelery Store at the Palmer House Hotel..​

"

Here he quotes the company's website.

"Founder Elijah Peacock, a skilled third generation watch and jewelry repairman, was lauded by his contemporaries for using his craft to repair pocket watches... Elijah passed the mantle to his son Charles Daniel, and in 1889, the name was changed to C.D.Peacock. As the city grew, C.D.Peacock expanded along with it. Each store was designed to be a showplace for the finest jewelry, watches, and gifts."​

http://www.cdpeacock.com/about-us/the-history-of-c-d-peacock/

"epcjimi1" again:

"I think "Time is Money" is not meant in the Ben Franklin sense, rather, for the Peacock Jewelry company, time is money literally, watch sales are the basis of the company business. Peacock sold time(keeping).​

Ornamental clock with peacock motif on the site of the former Peacock's Jewelry Store at State and Monroe Streets in Chicago, Illinois. Peacock on top and door style on the side.​

"

He grew up in Chicago, so knew about this Palmer House location.

Living way down deep in Dixie, I've only been to Chicago once. I didn't know the C.D. Peacock firm still existed. This is why collecting exonumia and World coins is so fun. One gets to "explore" the wider world and learn so much about other places.

 

This very same Monitor token sold for $340 in the 2010 Stacks-Bowers Baltimore sale, I believe, though through some lucky and/or strategic bidding I acquired it on eBay only a few years later for less than half that price, at a surprisingly modest $165.65.

We both figured our pieces in the mid- to upper-$200s for the purposes of this swap.

The Peacock is opened and examined in hand, now, though still not under a glass or with proper lighting. What I've seen of it so far is as expected and looks nice.

PS- I've also seen enough now to know I'm happy with the deal, so we're halfway to that desired "win-win" situation, pending John's receipt and opinion of the Monitor piece.