1863 CWT - Broas Brothers Pie Bakers

A recent purchase of mine. A touch more than I wanted to pay, but a great example of a Civil War Token and one I can let the kids handle without worry. Seller’s photos below.

Feel free to pile on with your CWTs!

 

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I don't have many. The wifes maiden name is Knickerbocker so has collected all of the common varieties of these:

 

Broas Pie Baker

 

Been wanting one of those for a while.

Z

 

My first, and only (so far), CWT. This is an area that I could get into as there is a ton of nice stuff out there. The last NWCC show I went to, there was a dealer that had nothing but slabbed CWT's. I could have sat at his tables for hours.

 

Here's a sample of store cards.

 

I saw this thread last night at the bottom of the page and hoped to revive it. I'm glad that others did.

I had a significant side business in the CWTs when I was a dealer. I kept some of the more interesting pieces. A really great collection has about 5,000 varieties. I have nowhere near that. I have only a couple hundred or so. Here are few that grabbed my interest.

The Skidmore Hotel had a gentlemen’s smoking and billiards room. This token, with the unusual eagle with a cigar in its beak, is a souvenir of that long lost “man cave.” This is a fairly scarce token although many of the survivors are in high grade.



I like the high relief aspect of this token, which was issued by a Philadelphia watch importer. He also issued a token with his portrait on it. And yes, the portrait piece I have has been improperly cleaned. I bought it when I was putting together a set of the CTWs have a portrait of the business owner on them. The late Jack Detwilder wrote an article for the "Civil War Token Journal" that was entitled "They Loved Themselves."



The Drovers' Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri was a place for cowboys to stay after they had driven a herd to town. I am sure that it was not "The Ritz." This one is scarace.



This "good for" a glass of beer CWT was issued by Fredrick Miller who started the beer company which still bears his name. The company has passed through many owner since then. Like many "good for's," This one is rare with perhaps 10 to 20 known. My theory is that the issuers destroyed them after they were redeemed. There is a much most common Fredrick Miller variety that has the same obverse.



Fayette "Yankee" Robinson was a traveling show entertainer. Like some people in a high risk business he went from very wealthy to very poor. In his last years, he was a penniless barker at the Ringling Brothers Circus. This piece was issued during his happier days. The reverse brings into focus a bit of carnival "hocus-pocus.



I have many more, but this is a nice group.

 

Some nice examples above.
My only one:

The obverse depicts the statue of Washington in Union Square. Pretty spot on, if you catch it at the right angle.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equestrian_statue_of_George_Washington_(New_York_City)

 

Those are all great tokens. Thanks members

 

Some Patriotic Tokens.

 

Here's mine from @stldanceartist , just tickles my funnybone or should I say my funnyspoot...

 

I just found photos of my really nice McClellan with a Knickerbocker obverse.
(Fuld 255/138)

Z

 

I have a couple recent (last six months) pickups that I'll share once I have time to image them (probably next week sometime.)

 

Never seen a Jewish Star on a CWT.
can you tell us more about it?
Heres a humble Monitor.


And a rusted die?


I miss @baseball21

 

This particular token reminds me of baseball. They used to use this saying to describe the old Washington Senators (now the Twins). They would say, "Washington, First in War, First in Peace, Last in the American League."

 

I think he was poofed.........

 

From what I could find, Ornaments were used to add appeal to the tokens. There's a long list of Ornaments. (arrows, spear heads, Maltese Crosses, leaves,etc)

 

I doubt that the five pointed star was intentionally Jewish. I will have to review who made that token, but I don’t recall that any of the CWT diesinkers were Jewish.