well i bought a bag of wheats from BudGood and i got this. i was wondering what it would be worth. it says Mishawaka on the bottom
That's a VERY neat find. It's a Civil War token or store card. cwtoken should be able to give you some more information and its value.
B.Holcomb was from Mishawaka Indiana - Its catalog # is CWT 630B-1a It is a R.4 Reverse die 1049 Values VG $6,VF $10,EF $12, UNC $35 Info from the Standard Cat. of US tokens- Cool find- It has a weak strike with XF details IMO
Great find! I don't have one of these either; plan on getting a Civil War token and a Hard Times token for the ol' 19th century type set, though.
I have been watching Detroit and any Michigan tokens on the bay. Will not buy untill I buy the Fuld book tho, you know the rules.
budgood is correct with his id, although using the Standard Catalog for identifying cwts is a crapshoot with the odds being that you will be incorrect. The Standard Catalog only lists one token (the most common) for each merchant, and this merchant issued 4 varieties. The R4 rarity indicates that there are 200 to 500 of those tokens known to exist. Kanzinger's 2002 guide lists this token at $35 in F/VF, $40 in XF, and $90 in Unc. While Kanzinger's was fairly accurate when published, and even for the following couple of years, his values have rapidly become obsolete as cwt prices have been climbing at a rapid pace for the past two years or so. Mishawaka rates a T3 in the town rating scale, which, while tokens are easily found, they are not as easily found as some other towns. The dies for this token are ascribed to Henry Darius Higgins, whose business was located on Main Street in Mishawaka, Indiana. By trade, Higgins was an optician who also made barometers, guns and false teeth in addition to his token production business. Higgins tokens are also known as "Indiana Primitives" because of their primitive, homemade qualities. His tokens circulated in the relatively small geographic area of northern Indiana and southern Michigan. Most were seemingly made in small quantities as they are relatively scarce today. His tokens must have been well accepted for use in commerce as most of Higgins' tokens are found in VF or lower condition. Some of Higgins dies were "hubbed" by using a token from another diesinker to produce his die, to which he would sometimes add lettering or other devices. He had used some of Scovill's and Waterbury Buttons' die for this purpose. Most of Higgins tokens were struck on thin planchets and are poorly struck up. Higgins' dies often reflect his strong pro-Union sympathies.
