United States (Nashville, TN): brass merchant token, Francisco & Whitman, Hatters; ca. 1852-1853 Obverse: ★ PUBLIC SQUARE ★ NASHVILLE TENN.; stovepipe hat. Reverse: FRANCISCO & WHITMAN / HATTERS; eagle with Union shield, wings spread, clutching an olive branch and three arrows in its talons. Issuer: Francisco & Whitman, hatters, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. Specifications: Brass, 23 mm, plain edge. Grade: PCGS MS65; cert. #35858718. Reference: Miller-53A Brass. Provenance: ex-"classickidcoins_0", eBay, 4 June 2020. Prior provenance to Heritage Auction #131924, Lot #26158 (sold for $312.00), 12 June 2019.* Notes: This is an interesting and especially pristine merchant token from the antebellum South, which has survived over 160 years in Gem Mint State, with few marks and surprisingly little toning of the brass. Many tokens of this era featured eagles similar to the ones on the gold coins then in circulation. Comments: I was drawn to this token by its Gem grade, not to mention the eagle, the top hat, and the fact that it's an early Southern piece. (Or at least the merchants were Southern; I suspect the token itself was struck by the Scovill Manufacturing Company in Waterbury, Connecticut.) 028355S
That is quite an interesting token. If I'm not mistaken based on the address I found, it sounds like this business was in the vicinity of where the Davidson County Courthouse now stands in downtown Nashville. Nowadays Public Square Park is a large urban park complete with a large reflection pool and observation towers. https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/1852-francisco-whitman-hatters-1832204529
LOL Neither do peanut-butter-filled cow hooves, but I betcha corgis like those, huh? Lemme tell ya, there is nothing quite so delightful as stepping on a gnawed cow hoof with your bare foot in the middle of the night on your way to the bathroom. I might just be speaking from experience there...
LOL. My Corgis just throw up after getting treats like these. They'll eat anything, throw it up, and try it again. Dogs are disgusting.
Stuff tastes better after someone has already tried to eat it and then coughed it back up. Any dog will tell you that.
@Bradley Trotter- thanks. Yeah, I spent a few minutes on Google Maps trying to piece that together, and also to place that 1850 photograph I posted above, to see if it was taken on the same public square. I didn't figure that out, but I did learn that Market Street (the stated location of the 1850 photograph above) is now 2nd Avenue, so if that wasn't the Public Square, it must have been close.
That attitude is why some extremely rare & eye-pleasing exonumia is available for a fraction of the cost of younger, more common, and just plain ugly coins. Oh, well. Different strokes for different folks.
Well, lordmarcovan seems to have beat me to this particular piece. But I'm certainly picking up a few others. "Junk bins" can be quite profitable if you key into the strange & rare. In my experience, it's often the story around a coin, token, or medal that gives it value.