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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;johnmilton, post: 24565855, member: 101855&quot;]Most historians agree that slavery was the root cause of the Civil War. Yet, the subject appears on only a few Civil War tokens. There are also some pieces which make a less than direct reference to it. And there are a couple of pieces where collectors may have had an active imagination. </p><p><br /></p><p>When I was dealer, I stocked Civil War tokens as a side line. Sales from them often covered the cost of my table and then some. The slavery pieces were very popular, and I went out of my way to stock them. Here are some examples.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1557207[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>This is by far, the most common anti-slavery Civil War token variety. The obverse reads, &quot;Liberty and no slavery.&quot; This obverse was paired with two other reverses. The Fuld variety numbers are 36/340. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1557208[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>This combination is the second most common when paired with die #36. The &quot;Union for ever&quot; reverse is die #271.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1557209[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>This is the scarcest of the varieties. The &quot;No compromise with traitors&quot; reverse did not strike up well on this piece. Fuld rated it as an R-4 201 to 500 known. I think that it falls in the low end of that estimate. </p><p><br /></p><p>Fuld variety 9/407a</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1557215[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Fuld 9A/406a</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1557216[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>These two tokens were made by Henry D. Higgins, who produced the &quot;Indiana Primitives.&quot; Higgins made his dies either by making copy dies from existing tokens, which was done with Liberty Head obverses on these pieces, or by making his dies, which are often charmingly crude. The reverse dies on these pieces are Higgins creations. </p><p><br /></p><p>Higgins made eye glasses and barometers among other things. Farmers had a use for barometers in predicting the weather. </p><p><br /></p><p>The phrase, &quot;Proclaim liberty though out the land&quot; is from the Bible. It is one of the inscriptions on the Liberty Bell, and is making a reference to slavery. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1557218[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>This piece was made by die maker, James Gleason, who produced &quot;the Michigan primitives. It was more than likely issued after Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which the president called a &quot;military necessity.&quot; The word is misspelled on the token, perhaps because Gleason ran out of room. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1557221[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>This one might be the product of an overactive imagination. Runaway slaves used the north star as a navigation device when they were feeing north. There was a patriotic envelope which pointed out this fact. Weather there is a tie-in between the envelope and this token is a matter for speculation. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1557222[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1557223[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>This is a storecard Civil War token that was issued by attorney Neil Kendal Shafer. The &quot;human rights&quot; reference on the reverse had to be concerned with slavery. Shafer advertised himself as an expert on the constitution and gave lectors on the subject. </p><p><br /></p><p>There are some other pieces that are not listed as Civil War tokens that I will cover later.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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