Liberty Head Army & Navy Civil War Token with «ES» behind the portrait

Hello everyone

Yesterday I tried to ID some civil war tokens that I’ve got.
I ran into some challenges with this one:



This looks like the very common Fuld 11/298 C, except for the (initials?) «E S» behind the portrait, to the upper right of «1863». It also appears under the wreath on the reverse. I tried to google and browse images, but haven’t found a similar yet. Are any of you familiar with this type?

 

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The obverse die is definitely Fuld 28- that's the only one of this type with ES at the base. In my copy of Fuld, the only reverse listed as paired with 28 is 303- how sure are you of the reverse as 298? 28/303a (copper) is listed as R2, while 28/303b (bronze) has a rarity of R5. Hope this helps.

 

I will have to sit down with the variety book, but the “E S” probably stands for Emil Siegel who was a very prolific Civil War token die maker and designer.

 

E.S. does stand for Emil Sigel the New York diesinker. Most of his sugned dies are done so with his initials but at times signed as E. Sigel.

Bruce

 

This helps a lot, @Parthicus. Thank you!
I’m actually quite sure that my original identification is 100% wrong.
I have Fuld somewhere in the attic. Larry Moran (larrymo at the ebay board) sent it to me as a gift years ago (I sent him a toned sower in return). I’ll better go and look for it, CWTs are fun.

 

And thank you to John and Bruce too. Always good to learn something new about an old coin.

 

The variety is 28/303a (a = copper). That would make it an R-2 ( fairly common) according to the current ratings.

 

Thanks John
I imagined it might be rarer, as I found plenty of samples without ES but none with it. But I guess we always perceive our coins as rarer and better grade than others do

 

I'm not sure a signed or unsigned example of a diesinker's work is very significant. Some never signed any of their work, others just a few while the rest of their work remained unidentified. I personally like to see the sinker's name or initials on a CWT, but I don't put much importance to it.

Bruce

 

Signed or unsigned really does not matter. It has to do with the varieties that are listed in the major reference works.