After purchasing the Roxbury and Maverick coach tokens, which were used in the Boston area in the 1830s, I have been looking for an example of the New York and Harlem pieces. This token is quite scarce It is rated as an R-5 with probably less than 50 examples known. The pieces were counterstamped for reasons that have been lost to history. The counterstamp varieties are Rosette (the most common and the piece shown here), dog and leaf or feather. The New York and Harleam (as spelled on the token) Railroad was incorporated in 1831. The groundbreaking for the company was on February 23, 1832 and its grand opening was on November 26 in the same year. It was the street car of its kind (on rails) in the United States and perhaps the world. At first the coaches were pulled by two horses, but as the line expanded north, wood fired steam engines were used. City regulations forbid the use of the steam engines below 23ud street in New York City. Over time the tracks were extended further and further north. New York was very different then that what it is now. The main part of the city was what is now called lower Manhattan. Harlem was noted for farms and estates. As late as the early 1900s, the Times Square area was where horses were housed, bought and sold. There was even an automobile maker there at the time. To my knowledge, only one of those automobiles is known today. It is on display at a car museum in Sarasota, Florida.
