Are Civil War tokens made for each division? What I mean is that was there a token for the 39th IL INF, or Yates Phalanx? I found out that my great-great-great-grandpa was in the civil war in Yates Phalanx and was in a couple of battles and witnessed Lee's surrender. I would want to find a token like that so I could show my grandpa and great-grandma. Henry Hagan was her grandpa. Also, is there any coins made by the Union that are cheap? Thanks!
Great questions, unfortunately I just bought my first piece a couple weekends ago. Pretty common R1 Army/Navy token in XF condition. The generic tokens whether it's confederate or union will be relatively inexpensive. However there are some rare military specific and store cards that will go for pretty insane prices. There is a guidebook for civil war tokens that can be useful. Or check out these sites for more information: cwtsociety.com civilwartokens.com Probably better to do your research on either of these sites, they're designed for them specifically.
The only Civil War tokens made for military units (sutler tokens) were privately minted and issued by sutlers (merchants) who traveled with the army. They supplied (at a steep price) tobacco, shaving gear, food items and a whole bunch of other things the soldiers couldn't easily get elsewhere. Many of the sutler tokens and scrip used during the war to pay for the goods are very rare and as a result are pricey today. Not all units had traveling sutlers. As far as I know, there were no sutlers who traveled with the Confederates, it was purely a Union "thing". A really interesting area of token collecting, but only for those with fairly deep pockets. Bruce
Civil War Tokens were manufactured to be used as a currency substitute, as US coinage was being hoarded. Merchants needed a way to make change for small purchases, and the tokens enabled that. Good advice above to visit the Civil War Token Society site, they have many publications that will interest you. Specifically you asked about tokens naming specific Union Army units. No, I have never see such tokens, nor to the Fuld brothers mention them in their books.
There is a book on Sutler tokens but even the book is not cheap. And if there is a sutler token for those units it will not be cheap and it will not be easy to find. Average price for even low grade common Sutler is in the $200 to $400 range. I only have one sutler just as a representative example. I may have a copy of the book, I don't remember. Did a little searching and the Regiment did have a sutler assigned to it, a Mr Brown. He apparently amassed a fortune and later established a bank in Richmond VA and later in Chicago. He died in 1877. Don't know yet if he issued tokens. OK he did issue at least one token. His name was A Vance Brown and he issued a good for 5 cent token in Brass for the 39th IL It is listed as an R-9 which on the 1 to 10 scale used for Civil War tokens would mean that there are 2 to 4 pieces known. He also apparently had a 50 cent token as well. I have found one reference to the sale of one of the five cent tokens but the website referenced is no longer available.
Brown also issued a 10 cent and 25 cent token. All denominations are R-9 except the 50 cent issue which is an R-8 rarity. The reference on sutler tokens was published in 1983 by Dave Schenkman and is titled "Civil War Sutler Tokens and Cardboard Scrip." It's the only reference in regard to sutlers that I know of. Schenkman has never updated it so some of the information is probably outdated. Copies are very hard to come by and as a result are expensive. Bruce
