More Charmy Conder Tokens - What are your thoughts on Conders?

Here is a group of Conder tokens I acquired at the FUN show from Gary Groll. These beauties are raw (as opposed to the last batch that are certified by NGC). In any event, I thought I'd share these beauties as well.

You'll notice the first one (Britannia holding scales) has really interesting shattered dies, and I doubt that die lasted much longer after this piece was struck. Also, the second one (Man in barge) has a huge cud from a broken die - I personally really like coins/tokens struck from messed up dies because they give the piece unique character.

Since I've posted several Conder tokens over the last few weeks, I am wondering what your impression is of these pieces. Are you warming up to these interesting tokens, or are you "ho hum" about them? All comments are welcome, but be nice!

 

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More beauties as always. Nice batch of tokens.

 

My thought on Conders ? "I need to buy The Book before diving in any deeper."

I searched Amazon and found a book by Richard Dalton (1977). The bad news is they are $225 and up. Is this The Book, or are there other modern references ?

Where can one get reasonable cost estimates for these fellas ?

 

Those are beauties!

[does my envy show?]

 

Look more like "Art on Copper"...sweet stuff

 

I agree that Conders are more like "copper art" - that's a great description! The book is Dalton & Hammer and it usually runs from $190 up. It's the authoritative reference for these (it's a hard bound 3" thick book), but I know of no one specific pricing guide. Conder101 may have more info on pricing.

 

Being copper what's not to love? The history behind these pieces must be very interesting. The designs are quite creative and each one seems to tell a story.

Would I collect them? Gonna say probably not, as I have my hands full with what I'm pursuing now. I put them in the category of "a man's gotta recognize his limitations!" :smile

 

I haven't downloaded it yet, but Toad recommended this download: MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service

It's a complete copy of The Provincial Token Coinage of the 18th Century (Dalton & Hammer).

 

I just downloaded it, works great, comes up in a pdf, it's over 600 pages.

Btw beautiful tokens Charmy, I loved the obverse of the 1796 Spencer's token.

 

Beauties!! Very smart of you to get such unique Conder tokens as they appreciate heavily in a short amount of time. I only have a couple of Conders but I am planning on incorporating them into my collection as soon as funds allow. go Conders!!

 

There has been only one complete book on pricing for these tokens and that was a book by Schwer. That book was from 1983 though and prices have increased maybe 6 or 7X since then possibly even more so. When I started collecting them in 1992 common MS pieces could be purchased in the $20 to $25 range. Today it is getting very hard to find them for less than $100 - $125. And if they aren't the commons they are hard to find for under $150. There was also a series of books English tokens and their values that came in several editions but it wasn't strictly for Conders and it hasn't been published in years.

Supposedly there is going to be a new price guide for the Conder tokens coming out this year but I don't know much about it yet. One of the persons involved is Allan Davisson who has been the publisher of the D&H book for the last three reprints. Allan is not going to be doing any more reprints though, and he has sold off the disbound original set of D&H that he had been using for producing the reprints.

The rumors also speak about the possibility of a new digital version of D&H coming out this year as well.

The Goldbergs Pre-Long Beach sale at the end of this month has a nice group of high grade Conders, the first 254 lots. I'll probably bid on a few of them but there isn't much I need in the group. They are nice though. Everyone stay away from the Warwickshire 38a though.

 

Very Interesting Charmy!! Whats the value of those??

 

Very nice! I love the obelisk type. I've always been rather fond of Conder tokens, the great variation and close historical importance is precisely why I collect ancients. If for some reason I had to stop, I would surely collect these.

 

Beautiful tokens Charmy!! Thanks so much for sharing...

That "Ass carrying Rents and Taxes" token made me chuckle, he doesn't look very happy lol

 

Hi, I just bought a book on American tokens (I realize this isn't what you asked for) at a very reasonable $35, so if you decide to go this route, I would definitely recommend it:

http://www.amazon.com/Standard-Cata...r_1_22?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264109859&sr=1-22

Here's a couple of links to books that came up when I did a search for 'conder token' on amazon:


http://www.amazon.com/Arrangement-P...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264110007&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Arrangement-P...=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264110042&sr=1-2

 

Charmy - as you already know, I'm a big fan of these tokens. Beyond acquiring "copper art", it is the stories and history behind each design that make them interesting to collect. Acquiring an interesting piece is only half the fun, IMHO. Thus, acquiring the reference material is important to fully appreciate what one collects. Beyond the D&H, buying the 5 out of print R.C. Bell books are essential. These can be had collectively for about $300-$400 depending upon condition.

Regarding the online reference in development as an alternative to buying the D&H hardcopy book, here is a link where you can be notified when it comes out (projected to be this Feb.):

http://www.condertokenbook.com/

 

These are the 1798 book by James Conder that has been taken from an open source scanning site (quite possibly Google books which does have a downloadable copy of the book) which has then been reprinted in book form.

 

Dr. Gary Sriro also has a very helpful Conder Token Identifier CD for sale that is a cross-reference of the legends to the Dalton & Hamer catalogue id. He also has just released his latest CD of scans of the tokens he owns/has owned. The CD has images for 3,850 different tokens with the number of times the token has appeared at auction over the last 11 years. I can heartily recommend both CDs.

 

Young lady, you have a very good eye for coins. Philosophical question, nature or nurture, were you gifted with this eye, or did you develop it, or in the modern third way, did you have a gift that you nurtured?

 

I'm really happy you all are enjoying these pretty Conders - thank you!

Farthing, Do you know how we can acquire the cds?

And Chip, that is an interesting question, about nature or nurture. And I'm not sure how to answer you, but all I can say is that I didn't learn how to appreciate pretty copper from anyone. My philosophy when I choose an eye appealing coin is that if I like it or think it is pretty, I think others will too. Not to sound sexist, but perhaps it's more of a female eye thing, I don't know for sure.