Just got this book recently but when looking through it is quite confusing. Lots of dies, varieties etc. I'm just getting into CWT collecting and only plan to collect by type. Any advice.
Maybe just collect tokens that you like... and dont worry so much about the varieties. Later down the line if you start wanting to do varieties than do it. Tip on CWT .. buy fine or better examples.
There are so many varieties it will drive you crazy. Collect what you like. I have some with a variety or two but then again, I like them. Check out my thread on The Flag of Our Union which was posted earlier today. This is a common but well liked CWT and I have the two varieties. Once you see them you’ll understand why I like them.
I been collecting coins fifty years. I never dipped my toes into the variety pool because I just don’t have that much patience or free brain cell capacity left…. Living down south, I love the history and spent a few years snagging civil war tokens and started to think I might want to expand that area of my collecting and knowledge base…. Until I began digging into it. Man, I had no idea the field was so wide. Good luck!
I would suggest collecting by topic. You might pick a state, all of the Monitor tokens, the Lincoln tokens, the anti-slavery tokens, the Civil War token makers or anything you can imagine. I wrote a series of articles about “mini-sets” years ago for the Civil War Token Society years ago. Those articles still might be up on their website. There are over 10,000 Civil War token varieties. You can’t collect them all. You need to pick your shots.
I think there are actually something like ten varieties of that token, but only one of them has the mis-spelling, the rest are just positional varieties in the lettering.
Here is an example of collecting Civil War tokens by topic. Here are the obverses for all of the Monitor varieties by the Patriotic token Fuld die varieties. #237 #238 This is the "Indiana Primitive" variety which is a copy of the token above. It has different re-engraved, uneven denticles and is missing some of the design details. These pieces are scarce. #239 #240 #241 And if you want to add one more, there is a "Monitor" in the background on this piece, #257. All of these obverse varieties are common except for #238. These obverses are paired with many reverses and come in various metals.
Looking for information on this coin. it has the word union at the top with an eagle and a small shield on it's chest and on the back it has the inscription the union must and shall be preserved jackson. I am not able to upload any images at this time but any information would be helpful thank you.
It the lettering is amateurishly spaced with flowers and horns interspersed, it could be an Indiana Primitive Civil War token. The Jackson quote was from the 1830s when was opposing the nullification crisis over tariffs. It was at a Jefferson Day Democratic Party dinner and directed toward Senator John C. Calhoun.
