I have an 1864 Token that I can't seem to find much on. The front of the coin has 6 stars on the left and 6 stars on the right. The center has a figure with shoulder length hair and a feathered cap. The feathers stand straight up. On the back it has a figure holding his hat in the air (possibly washington). He is on the back of a horse which is standing up on it's back legs. Around this it reads "The Federal Union It Must Be Preserved", and the date below the horse is 1864. Does anyone have any info about the coin's history and / or value. Thank you for your time. Bobby
Probably a civil war token. Need pics to determine much info They made hundreds of tokens during this period.
Wow, searching around for this coin (and there are too many variations to list) is fascinating! I want one now... cool stuff
Hi Bobby and welcome to Coin Talk. FarmerB is correct in that what you have is a Patriotic Civil War token. But they made thousands of varieties (well over 10,000). You did an excellent job with your description of the token. Good enough that I have a very high level of confidence that your token is id 54/179a, which has an R-2 rarity rating. That means that it is considered common, with 2001 to 5000 believed to yet be in existence. Kanzinger's 2002 catalog lists values for this token at $12 in F/VF, $15 in XF and $20 in Unc. You were correct with your front and back designations, with the front (obverse) being made with die #54, and the back (reverse) being made with die #179. The lower case "a" designates that the token was made using copper. Many cwts were made in a variety of metals, but that particular die combination was only made in copper. Its too bad that the stars were not all evenly spaced though, as that would have been a much more valuable variety. The diesinker that produced both of those dies was Charles D. Horter, whose shop was located on the second floor at 178 William Street, New York City, NY. He made many patriotic cwt dies, with his tokens circulating primarily in the New York City area. Horter's tokens are relatively common and are available in any condition. There is evidence that Horter traded dies with engraver Emil Siegel, whose shop was just across the street, even to the point where they each signed the other's work as their own. Horter also appears to have used one of Glaubrecht's hubs to produce some of his work, so he likely had some working relationship with that diesinker as well.
Since you did not post pictures, verify my identification with this example that I found on ebay to the token that you have. http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-1864-TH...temQQimsxZ20090402?IMSfp=TL090402151001r12622
