Let's see your exonumia!

A Nice counterstamped 1853 !!!
Check the date, see is one of Die variety.

 

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Hate touch screen at Times.

 

NV10c is mine, yours is likely NV10a but I'm deployed and against my better judgement I didn't bring my books. I can look it up for you when I get back unless @longnine009 chimes in before then. Usually Cunningham starts his lists with the five cent and ends with the highest. Without having my book I don't know if they went any higher than a dollar. I have seen tokens as high as five dollars.

Considering the token from Dobbins...I have nothing to go on with that one. Even the base isn't on it and I'm taking the word of the man I purchased it from (he is a retiring collector of Air Force tokens) that it's from Dobbins. Dobbins spent it's post WWII years as a Air Guard and Reserve base and in fact is properly known as Dobbins Air Reserve Base today but has had something like five different names over the years including: Rickenbacker Field, Marietta Army Airfield, Marietta Air Force Base, Dobbins Air Force Base, Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Dobbins Joint Air Reserve Base, then finally back to Dobbins Air Reserve Base.

 

Nice counterstamp wlw. Nice clear stamps on a pretty decent Large Cent.

There are two different Stibbs stamps documented. Yours, and another stamped "H. Stibbs". There are additional counterstamps on some of the "H. Stibbs" issues and they include "Savannah, Geo." and "Lovell & Stibbs". It's not clear that the two issues are related. Yours is struck on an 1853 Large Cent, while the other three documented are on 1820, 1827, and 1838 cents. Previously it was thought that they were struck about 1840, but that assumption is obviously wrong.

It's my feeling that "Stibbs" and "H. Stibbs" are the same man. Henry Stibbs was a blacksmith and metal worker in the Savannah area c1840s / 1850s ?? Stibbs & Lovell was mentioned in an 1838 issue of the Savannah Daily Georgian but the type of business they were in wasn't noted.

If "Stibbs" is unrelated to "H. Stibbs", then he probably hails from Ohio, as it was a fairly common surname in that state. My feeling is that your coin was struck by Henry Stibbs (Savannah) in the mid to late 1850s. Thanks for posting it, wlw.

Bruce

 

Indian Springs Aux Field has in interesting history and is a little tricky to figure out. There were five Indian Springs Aux Fields and each had different missions including nuclear tests. Creech AFB might be a former Aux Field...it's late here and I'm not sure. These Aux Fields were used by the Army Air Force during WWII and a couple were closed after the war with I think three remaining open for various Cold War activities. If you get a chance, I'd love to see yours Bruce.

 

Thanks for the wonderful history, Jack. I'll see if I can get a pic tomorrow and post it.

Bruce

 

Let me dig around a little and see if I can find out some more interesting things about the place/places. If I'm correct and Creech AFB is a descendent from one of the Aux Fields then today's mission is flying unmanned aerial vehicles or the dreaded drones. There may be ties to Area 51 also...

 

There's a black SUV parked across the street from my house...now I know why. YIKES!!

Bruce

 

Could anyone help me with the history behind this? I know it's nothing special but wonder why it was made.

 

a very neat one!

I like it

 

This is a Hard Times Token, Idhair. These private issues, along with political and satirical pieces, were issued to fill the need for small change during the Bank Panic of 1837.

The Hard Times era stretched roughly from 1833 to 1844 and saw great upheaval in the banking system. As usual during financial crisis, small change is hoarded and a substitute must be found so business can continue. These are the equivalent of Civil War tokens of the 1860s.

Congress Hall was a hotel in Saratoga Springs, NY. It was built in 1811 and had a number of proprietors over the years. William R. Brown was one of them. The hotel was destroyed by fire in 1866.

Hard Times tokens are actively collected which means there is some value to your token. I'm not sure what it would sell for if you decided to let it go, but you could check ebay and other auction sites to see what similiar examples went for. Nice token! Thanks for showing it.

Bruce

 

I looked into William R. Brown a bit more, Idhair, and realized I made a mistake. He was the proprietor of Congress Hall in 1854 so his token couldn't be from the Hard Times. Rather it's considered a Merchant Token (1845-1860), not from the HT era.

The information about HTTs is still valid, and the hotel was in existence in those times, but your token was struck later as an advertising piece. I apologize for my mistake. A little sloppy researching on my part I'm afraid.

Nevertheless, your token still has value to it, as the tokens from this era are avidly collected as well. About 10 or 15 years ago Russ Rulau estimated its value at between $20 and $50, depending on grade. The estimate would probably be higher today. Again, I'd check past auction results. I apologize again for my mistake in the first post.

Bruce

 

In conducting my research for Indian Springs Aux Field I found a tremendous resource - "Locating Air Force Base Sites History's Legacy" edited by Fredrick J. Shaw. It covers 1907 to 2003 and purports to detail the rationale of why bases were opened and closed. This should be an interesting read and will hopefully fill in some gaps. The document is available online for free from the Air Force History and Museums Program and is available here for viewing/downloading:

http://www.afhso.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-100928-010.pdf

Anyway interesting tidbit I read illuminated something about Jefferson Barracks, Missouri; that it was secured by the Army Air Corps for aviation technical training! I only bought these tokens because I liked the design but I like them even more now! Anyway, I've posted these before but I'm going to do it again.

Photos courtesy of eBay seller sctokens, edited together by me.


There's also a ten cent token and I own one but I can't seem to locate the photo.

One of the many great things about this hobby is learning more about the history that surrounds our coins, or in the case of this thread, our exonumia.

 

Hi, Jello! I'm not sure what you're referring to about die variety...I'm unfamiliar with them except for Morgan dollars, etc. What should I be looking for? Your pic of an 1853 date block is without comment...is it my penny, or another with the die variety you're talking about? Thanks! wlw

 

Thank you for the deep history, BRandM. I'll dig around some more, maybe get closer to the Stibbs differentiation. wlw

 

Thanks Bruce. Great info.

 

I don't collect these 19th century merchant tokens but I thought this one was too cute to pass up.

 

That token appears to be in great condition, excellent pickup!

Neat looking cat too, I've never seen one like that before.

 

"The stars my camp, the Deity my light"