I am a total beginner in terms of coin collecting, appreciate it if people would help me by giving me an explanation of why this is "rare" and how much it would cost. I am not interested in selling it, but would just like to know the value. Sources would be appreciated. Pictures here
Welcome to the board. Looks more like a token, so you will have to wait for one of the experts. Pretty cool!
'how much it would cost'? As much as the seller is asking. What is it worth? A very different question. A Civil War Token, assuming it is a common variety, aout $8 to $10. However, the pictures are not very clear, to my old, tired eyes.
Here is a link to one on eBay http://cgi.ebay.com/1863-Civil-War-...temQQimsxq20090606?IMSfp=TL090606132003r37526
It is well circulated and it is probably one of the common ones so $8 retail is probably pretty close. If it was the popular "spoot" variety it would be higher even though it fairly common as well.
What you have is a Patriotic Civil War token. Its id is 207/409a. 207 is the die number for the flag side, and 409 is the die number for the lettered side. The lower case "a" is the designator for copper. This token has an R-1 rarity rating and is considered "common" as there are over 5000 known to exist. One could compile a fair sized collection just of the varieties of this token. There are 13 different (similar style) flag dies, 10 varieties of the "DIX" lettered side, and 4 possible metals, for a total of 44 listed varieties for this style of token. Kanzinger's 2002 "The Civil War Token Collector's Guide" (the only somewhat current pricing guide for cwts) lists your token at $12 in F/VF, $15 in XF and $20 in UNC. Some of these varieties are somewhat pricey, with 12 of them over $100 in UNC, and 4 of those are over $1000, and 3 of those list over $2500. The one pennywise provided a link to is a little scarcer, id 209/412a is an R-3 (501 to 2000 known), with listed values of $13, $17 and $25 for the respective grades. It is not known for sure who the diesinker was that produced this token, but preliminary research indicates that the Waterbury Button Co. of Waterbury, Conn may have produced them. I hope that helps, and feel free to ask if you have any further questions.
Ya see gang, CWTman is just one of the many reasons CT rocks. Always amazing replies to these types of threads.
