Civil War - Suttler Tokens

Discussion in 'US Coins Forum' started by mikenoodle, Jul 22, 2021.

  1. mikenoodle

    mikenoodle The Village Idiot Supporter

    I have been researching these for my job and I thought that the crowd at CT would enjoy them as well.

    Please comment if you have any knowledge to share on these as well:

    97560F0C-BC84-4569-808D-FAB708E4C718.jpeg 8D718645-82E1-445A-A447-60A2B0AEB9FA.jpeg B3758562-9492-4029-B17C-2A10E3BE1828.jpeg CAD3AE87-490F-4050-AB9B-6E1A82E09746.jpeg 873F591C-524A-48AF-8FE4-82373BD02BC0.jpeg C197B539-7F4D-4291-A5E5-332680789C09.jpeg View attachment 1334980 E0E5D4A4-025A-417B-BE8B-039C3E6F1D19.jpeg 8026DD63-F2FB-4BDB-A87F-4FC492180609.jpeg 64810EDD-2572-4036-A8E0-B0528F4CB962.jpeg
     
    Last edited: Jul 22, 2021
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  3. mikenoodle

    mikenoodle The Village Idiot Supporter

    And one last token:

    0E1139A1-34B4-44B1-AB6C-D1C29985477C.jpeg BF334310-507A-456D-9B94-1B79A0DE270C.jpeg B87210B1-AAED-42C4-BC37-DC8C189FFFB3.jpeg
     
  4. SensibleSal66

    SensibleSal66 U.S Casual Collector / Error Collector

    Wow ! Cool Tokens . That was a lot of money back in those days for a denomination . ;)
     
  5. johnmilton

    johnmilton Well-Known Member

    Not as much as you might think. The sutlers were in a high risk, high priced business for the time. Often the sutler would end up with most of a soldier's monthly pay, and some of them were in hock all the time. It was noted that some officers approved when the men had "sutler raids" to even the score.

    All sutler tokens are scarce to rare. If you want to get into them, be prepared with a nice big checkbook. The Massachusetts Harvey Lewis pieces are among the most common.

    I bought a sold a number of them when I was dealer. Here are a few I have left.

    Benton Sutler All.jpg

    Joseph Merriam, who made the Harvey Lewis pieces, had a neat way to use the same die for each nomination. The "50" in the center of the reverse can be pulled out and replaced by another number, like "10" or "25."

    Harvey Lewis All.jpg

    This Massachusetts sutler issued a super simple token. I am guess this might be one dollar. It makes no sense to issue a one cent token.

    Pearl Sutler All.jpg

    I kept this one because the reference to the Zouaves who wore colorful uniforms with baggy pants. Cincinnati die sinker, John Stanton, branded this one on the reverse.

    Zouave All.jpg
     
    Bradley Trotter and mikenoodle like this.
  6. Heavymetal

    Heavymetal Well-Known Member

    Picked this one from a junk coin bin from a closed Florida LCS
    Sold it last winter 706D7E96-3682-45E2-A08F-CA244CBB582A.jpeg 978B2F02-E7C3-435E-83AF-AF0AB83E52F0.jpeg
     
  7. Treashunt

    Treashunt The Other Frank

    My thought exactly, but you beat me to it.

    A lot of money back then
     
  8. Steven Shaw

    Steven Shaw Well-Known Member

    50c back then is worth about $10 today
     
  9. H8_modern

    H8_modern Attracted to small round-ish art

    I know this thread is a little old but picked up this NY Sutler on Saturday

    upload_2023-8-28_23-13-46.jpeg

    upload_2023-8-28_23-14-2.jpeg

    Civil War Sutler, F. Mangold, 9th New York State Militia, 10 Cents. S&I-NY-9-10B, R.6.Brass.
     
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