Anyone collect Civil War tokens?

Discussion in 'US Coins Forum' started by MKent, Jan 12, 2014.

  1. kaparthy

    kaparthy Well-Known Member

    If you have not seen the Bowers book, then how can you know that the old books by the Fulds are better? I agree that as with Bust Halfs or other series, the aficianado has all of the references. The Bowers book continues the works of the Fulds, and has an introductory essay by the late George Fuld.

    It is not unusual for an avid collector to have items that are not in the standard catalogs. With CWTs in particular, the Fulds themselves knew that their catalogs were never complete because new issues were always being discovered... one here... one there...

    In fact, any area of numismatics where all the examples are completely known and thoroughly identified would have to be moribund: no more work can be done.

    My review of the Bowers book will appear in the Winter 2014 issue of the MSNS Mich-Matist.
     
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  3. mackwork

    mackwork Caretaker of old coins & currency

    It just my opinion based on what others have said about things missing in the Bowers book. I agree that new ones keep surfacing, but from what I understand the Fuld books remain the most complete concerning die marriages. I do plan on getting the Bowers book.
     
  4. kaparthy

    kaparthy Well-Known Member

    Yes, that is the story we tell. It does beg the question, though, does it not? Why were these tokens not hoarded? The fact that we identify them by standard dies shows that they were popular commercial items, not ad hoc remedies. Contrast them with the so-called "blacksmith's tokens" of Canada or the so-called "Bungtown" counterfeits of the American revolution and early republic.

    Moreover, general economics suggests that one or a few large issuers would have dominated. Instead, every small town had one, sometimes two. About 120 issues are known from Detroit. They were a fad that everyone wanted to get in on. I agree that these tokens served a place in commerce. They may even have displaced federal cents.

    The larger issue is that numismatics and economics are too often distanced from each other. The other side of the coin is that even von Mises, Hayek, Rothbard were ignorant of the very facts that would have substantiated their theories because they did not actually collect coins and banknotes. They just theorized about them.
     
  5. PennyGuy

    PennyGuy US and CDN Copper

    It is clear to me that the new Bowers book will not replace the Fuld's work. Missing so many of the existing varieties, along with the literally hundreds of misprinted reverse ID numbers, Bower new book will have to stand on the introductory sections and excellent photographs alone until revised.

    As work continues within the Civil War Token Society to update the Second Edition of the Fuld Store Card book we are left with the Second Edition for research as the most complete compendium available today.

    I can report that the MI525C-3b posted above will appear in the Third Edition when published.
     
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  6. PennyGuy

    PennyGuy US and CDN Copper

    Given the millions that exist in the collector market today can we really say they were not hoarded? Keep in mind that these tokens, and other monetary units, were de-monetized following the Civil War. No longer legal to pay debt they were simply pieces of metal to most people of the day.

    The merchants did not produce their own tokens. The diesinkers that produced them numbered in the dozens. Issuing merchants realized an immediate profit by paying out tokens at one cent each, which accounts for the large number of issuing merchants. There were some very large issuing merchants, Lindenmueler of New York comes to mind, but remember merchants were never required to "make good" on the tokens they issued.
     
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  7. BRandM

    BRandM Counterstamp Collector

    You're right PennyGuy, merchants couldn't be forced to make good on their tokens. Lindenmueler ran into problems in this regard but never redeemed his tokens when they had become worthless.

    Bruce
     
  8. brg5658

    brg5658 Well-Known Member

    Here are a few of mine:

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  9. brg5658

    brg5658 Well-Known Member

    And a few more recent ones...

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  10. PennyGuy

    PennyGuy US and CDN Copper

    Outstanding pieces brg5658
     
  11. mackwork

    mackwork Caretaker of old coins & currency

    Fantastic looking tokens brg5658!
     
  12. kaparthy

    kaparthy Well-Known Member

    (Sorry to have been away. I started a new job and we are moving. Things are stacking up here a bit.)

    brg5658's tokens are stunning. I note the rarer "Shoot him on the spot" non-error variety.
    By hoarded, I meant that people did not spend them but kept them, accumulated them, melted them, and sold the metal. That did not happen. They circulated. Why, if people were "hoarding metal money"? We read ourselves too easily into history.
    They were never legal. They still circulated. The US government attempted to make tokens unlawful several times. It never held. People do what they do. CWTs could have long after the war, as did fractional currency notes. They did not. They were a fad of the Civil War. Once the war was over, they lost their purpose.
    As I said above, that is why we identify them by standard die numbers: merchants ordered them from producers. But as you say, dozens of firms were in the business of making tokens. Why did not dozens of firms make non-standard silver tokens? I have silver bank tokens from the UK: lower fineness and weight, good-for "real" money, but in silver none the less. It would seem that if people were "hoarding hard money" and if cent tokens were abundant, someone would have filled the voids at the higher levels of commerce. That did not happen. It suggests that CWTs were an advertising medium first and as such paid their way into commerce.

    One test of my theory would be the non-existence of huge lots bagged by the thousands from street car companies, ferries, newspapers, and other users of minor coinage. In fact, while CWT vectures are known, they are not a major category. Rather than a thousand dry goods stores, we would know hundreds of local competing newspapers who were actual consumers of minor coinage and who also understood advertising.
    Imagine the profits on 10-cent tokens or 25-cent tokens. (In the 1790s British merchants promised to make good on 240 pence for a pound payable in London, Liverpool, or Birmingham (depending).) No one did. The faux cents were fine. They were a common fad.

    CWTs suggest a lot of questions about the sociology of money: what money is; what people recognize as money; the purposes it serves aside from tallying for commerce. Everyone likes a pretty coin, but if you could not read the legends and did not understand the devices, the object would be meaningless. CWTs carry a lot of meaning.
     
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