@Publius2 was looking for a "Our little Monitor" Civil War token and was successful. I mentioned to him that there was an Indiana Primitive variety of the token and tried to describe it to him. Since pictures are worth a 1,000 words, here are two examples. This is the original "Our little Monitor" which was made by the Scoville Company in Waterbury, Connecticut. This second Monitor token was made by Henry Higgins who was a jeweler, watch make, eye glass maker, a maker of barometers and other produces. It appears that Higgins used an example of the token above to make a copy die in softened steel. The reverse is one of Higgins' home made dies which gives his tokens the "primitive" label. Higgins made many token varieties, both as patriotics and store cards for other merchants. Here is a merchant store card Higgins made for his business.
Nice, I would have never known, it's amazing how many jewelers designed tokens, the Monitor likely the most popular of all!
@johnmilton thanks for sharing that at the show and then again here. Here's the one I bought at FUN and undoubtedly paid too much for.
JM that is probably the best struck HIggins Little Monitor I have ever seen. Mine looks like something you'd peel off the sole of your shoe, LOL. The monitors are a great little subset of CWT's that can be completed for not a lot of money.
