I've been thinking about picking up a Civil War token depicting the Monitor for a couple of months. A recent article in the March 2012 issue of Coin World seems to have driven the prices up a bit. I'm curious though - what are the relative rarities of the different dies? There are 5 obverse dies: F-237, F-238, F-239, F-240, and F-241. There are at least 2 different reverse dies that these are paired with: F-421 & F-423 (I presume F-422 too). Are there any combinations that are significantly scarcer than others? Which of the George and Melvin Fuld books focuses on this particular series? I may need to pick up a copy before I pony up any serious money chasing one of these. If you have no idea what I'm talking about at all, here's a link to a prime example: http://stacksbowers.com/auctions/AuctionLot.aspx?LotID=29528
This is one of my monitor CWTs. NGC 65 RB that I think I paid 265 for from a dealer setting up right next to us at a show. The thing never hit the floor! I have another monitor that is a little different than this one in VG and I considered searching out all of them. I saw another nice example at the last FUN show in 65 BN but I couldn't get over all the die corrosion that transfers onto the coin. Although it is a die marker for the variety, it just didn't see dropping a few hundred on a coin I didn't like just because I thought I wanted all of them once. I'm now content to have this nice RB example representing the Monitor holding in my CWT collection. Matt
I think the best book to get for R-values of store cards and patriotics is "The Civil War Token Collectors Guide" by Bryon Kanzinger. It was published in 2002 so may be a bit outdated but I can't think of a better book off hand. If you search eBay or the internet you should be able to find a copy. Or if you can give me specific die combinations that interest you I can look them up for you George. Bruce