1836 Bust Half Civil War ID Tag?

Recently picked this up and wanted some opinions! I've been an avid collector of bust half dollars but I am not to well versed in Civil War exonumia. Any help would be appreciated!

 

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The 57th VA was a volunteer infantry regiment. Sure looks like a dogtag or someone emulating one

 

Love it. Nice addition

 

Cool looking piece.

 

Looks real. Nice thing would be well worth researching who he was

 

That's a sweet little piece of history!

 

Looks like I found a good possibility of the private it belonged to!

 

That’s great that you were able to tie the history together. @lordmarcovan would like this.

 

I would have grabbed it

 

I just want to second what @lordmarcovan said. These ID tags can be very valuable if authentic. They are also easy to fake, so having it authenticated by a expert is a must.

A few years ago, I saw some pics of fakes that I would have sworn were real. They were that good. It's not too hard to determine the appropriate punch types used during that time and look up soldiers names in regimental rosters. Then a little creative artificial wear (tumbling in a soft media, carrying in your pocket, etc) and little artificial aging and you've turned your $5 holed coin into an artifact that can be worth thousands.

Another factor to consider. How did you acquire the coin? If it was from a family with a known provenance, a long time collector, or at a major collectables show (where other experts have had a chance to see it and provide feedback to the seller) then you might have something. Was it was a flea market find? Did the seller say he wasn't sure what it was? Then I would start doing some research.

BTW: It looks very convincing to me. If I wasn't aware of the potential counterfeiting problems with these artifacts, I would have thought you have something. Maybe you do, but you need to have experts look at it. I really hope you have something.

 

That was my exact question. Was it found metal detecting at Gettysburg? (If it was, I would send it to the family because it was likely removed from he died.) I'm interested to hear the provenance of this coin.

 

Man, I hope this is real. It mixes three of my interests, coins, the Civil War and genealogy. Keep us informed.

 

I bought it off a dealer who deals in alot of Exonumia off......eBay but knowing the family who had it listed and the fact that they have a pretty stellar reputation I am sure they would have spotted any red flags. It will definitely be making a trip to the February Long Beach show to get some more opinions. Thank you all so much! I love being able to research and learn with this hobby every chance I get and having the help of some amazing gents like yourselves it is definitely the hobby of kings!

 

I also can't wait to see if the hole shows signs of being actively around a rope or necklace to show that it was worn and not just freshly drilled and thrown into an auction! This type of stuff has always made me nervous but I figured it was worth the gamble...especially with the 30 day return policy!

 

Having collected Civil War era exonumia for over fifty years now, I'll humbly offer my take on this piece. I doubt that even Rich Hartzog, astute as he was, could even authenticate this potential Confederate identification disk. Sadly, Rich passed away just this past month.

Had this piece been accompanied by some personal memorabilia and provenance, it'd then be somewhat convincing. Otherwise, it's plausible, yet nowhere near convincing, for a dedicated collector. Novices or eBay hawkers will surely pay a premium for a highly questionable piece like this though, hoping to score.

The misaligned letters were punched by someone who was inexperienced, it seems. However, the neat, smoothed hole looks to me like it was created by a craftsman. While this piece could have been stamped during the war, it could just as likely have been stamped many years later. Perhaps, it was done to display at post war encampments by Johnson, himself? Or, it could have been stamped much later by a family member or even a reenactor? Any or all of these scenarios is just as possible, if not probable, than the most desired scenario of it being a contemporary Confederate "dog tag."

While the letter punches used to create this piece look to be a 19th century font, these early punches are still quite obtainable. I have a complete set of letter and number punches that once belonged to an early silversmith. They came in a thick, handcrafted box, along with a small, brass hammer and anvil. I also have some holed Bust and Liberty Seated Half Dollars. I've contemplated creating one or two pieces like that of the OP, just to use to educate collectors and make them wary.
Note that I've long collected contemporary counterfeit coins and used them to make fellow collectors wary.

On the plus side for the OP's piece is that the subject, Johnson, was not a higher ranking soldier or one of note. It seems to me that a faker would choose someone of rank, akin to the "Vairin" fakes. On the downside, a half dollar was a nice piece of change, during the Civil War, and these were then generally hoarded. So, using a large cent as an ID disk would have made far more sense economically, it seems.

From my humble perspective as a collector who's paid many hundreds of dollars for any single, desired counterstamped coin, I'd value an educational maverick piece like this in the $50-$75 range. That said, the vast majority of coin dealers wouldn't pay me that much for a piece that I paid $500 for. What the value of exonumia boils down to, more so than coins and paper money, is knowledge.

Some thirty-plus years ago, I spotted a counterstamped coin in a dealer's case. It appeared to be a desirable logo punch, bearing a name, town and occupation of some late 19th century merchant, on a large cent. Upon examining the piece, I asked the dealer, "How much?" He said it wasn't for sale and asked, "If it was for sale, how much would you pay?" I told him that because it wasn't a recognizable, commonly seen classic stamp, I'd offer but $15. He complimented me, adding that he'd been offered far more than that at times. He said he owned the original punch and had stamped the coin, himself; this, so as to caution collectors about counterstamped exonumia.

 

Unfortunately there isn't any provenance or any other way to really tie this piece back to Johnson. The one thing I can say is that it definitely wasn't made post war by Johnson himself since he died in Gettysburg but I could see it being done by someone post mortem. I suppose I'll have to trust my gut once I get this in hand and decide whether I hold onto or return it.

 

That county in VA is 10 minutes from my house.

 

From a simple common sense perspective, this strikes me as the biggest red flag yet presented, particularly considering the individual it's being attributed to.

Interesting thread with a number of insightful posts. Nice job, fellas!