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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;johnmilton, post: 25884026, member: 101855&quot;]This token has some scarcity, but it’s not as rare as you might think. This piece was sold at a Sanitary Fair fund raiser that was held on the island. The Sanitary Commission raised funds to supply Union soldiers in the field with cleaning utensils, blankets, bandages and soap. </p><p><br /></p><p>Believe it or not, about as many soldiers died of diseases in the camps as those who died on the battlefield. People didn’t understand how diseases were spread during the Civil War, but they knew that cleanliness had something to do with preventing them. Many local communities held fundraises like this, and at least five of them issued tokens for those events. </p><p><br /></p><p>Nantucket was a whaling community during the Civil War. Whaling was a high income, high risk industry. There were many well to do people on the island. </p><p><br /></p><p>The New York City Sanitary Fair was one of the biggest, but its token, which looks very much like this one, and was made by the same token maker, is very scarce and expensive. They got the dates of the fair mixed up, and very few pieces were issued.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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