How bout a picture of the bust side with the word COPY stamped into it? If by chance it doesn't have COPY stamped into it then this is the real deal then maybe worth 25$ in the condition it is in ??
I have no idea about all the symbols on old token. I'm sure it all means something. Maybe I'll look it up one day.
Many of the symbols and quotes depicted on Hard Times Tokens are meant to be very satirical in nature. The times were indeed hard ones. Circulating cash was very scarce, even to the point that buttons were known to have been used for money. The quote on Markus's token "I follow in the steps of my illustrious predecessor" was taken from Van Buren's Inaugural Address, and the caricaturists of the period seized that opportunity to depict Van Buren carefully stepping in the footprints of a jackass going down the road. I think their thoughts about Van Buren's course of action is quite clear, even with the abbreviated concept shown on the tokens. Van Buren's predecessor, Andrew Jackson, was not an educated man, nor even a well informed man, but he was a patriotic soldier who had become President of the United States. Jackson opposed high tariffs and the U.S. Bank, both volatile economic topics of the day. His determined character in these areas is referred to as the "Roman Firmness" on some HTT. Jackson's opposition to the bank, and his vetoing of the granting the bank a new charter, contributed to the financial hard times of the era, leading to the "jackass" depiction. Some of the jackasses on HTT have the letters L.L.D. on the body, a reference to when Harvard College conferred a Doctorate of Laws in 1833 to Jackson, something at which at his enemies rejoiced at the absurdity of the title. The "Executive Experiment" refers to the divorce of Bank and State. This divorce separated Government funds from all others, and freed the Treasury's fiscal operations from any dependence upon the banks. Collection, safe keeping, transfer and disbursement of all government (public) money was to be handled solely by agents of the Government (Fiscal Agents). The tortoise with the strongbox (labeled Sub-Treasury) alludes to the slow financial progress of the economy during the experiment. There is a great deal more history and symbology represented by these tokens, but I just scratched the surface to bring out a few of the meanings on the tokens pictured in this thread. Additional info is easily found and well worth reading if you have any interest in these tokens.
