It took a while, but I finally received the lots I won in a recent StacksBowers auction. Three of lots where cents, which furthered my "one cent per year collection, 1793 to 2025" and one was a upgrade for a fairly scarce Hard Times Token. I now have four large cent dates left to go. This 1807 cent is supposed to be a common date among the early large cents, but for some reason, I have never owned one over 65 years as a collector. This one is graded EF-45. The 1811 is a better date. I owned one in Poor when I was kid, which barely showed the date. This one is VF-25. You can spend on fortune on this date, and I didn't want to do that. This one, as well as the 1807 and the Hard Times Token were in the late Dick August's collection. I knew Dick when I lived in New England. He and I traded coins and tokens over the years. Dick had a good eye for copper, and this piece is no exception. It has a fair amount of wear, but the surfaces are smooth and "hard" which means there is no corrosion. The third piece completed my "album set" Flying Eagle and Indian Cents. It is an 1858 Large Letters Flying Eagle Cent in MS-64. I thought that I would fill this spot with ease at either the big September Tampa show or Winter FUN. I was wrong. I ran into a lot overgraded coins, and some pieces in MS-65 and 66 holders. The price goes way up in MS-65, and some of those coins didn't make the grade. The worst one I saw was graded MS-66. My grade was MS-64. This one turned out to be better than I thought it would be from the pictures on-line. It's got lots of luster with the usual marks one would expect for the MS-64 grade. The last piece is a fairly scarce Hard Times Token, listed in Rulau as HT-14, A.K.A. Low-6. I had one that I had bought from Dick August over 30 years ago. At the time he sold it to me, he said that the one he was keeping was only "a little better." I think that this may have been that piece. This variety is rated as an R-5, 31 to 75 known. I was only going to buy this "if the price was right," and oddly enough it was. I thought that it would sell for more. PCGS graded this AU-58. And here is the piece I bought from Dick August many years ago. Most people think of Hard Times tokens as pieces that are like large cents. This scarcer piece is smaller and lighter and made is made of brass, not pure copper.
I know, right! Isn't it amazing how someone could keep this in such beautiful shape considering changing environmental conditions?
I have always viewed these as circulating in place of suddenly scarce change, but I was curious about the significance of "les trois jours" on your token and I did some research. The three days were election day for Mayor of New York City, and apparently, these were issued as campaign pieces by the Whigs. The Whig candidate, however, lost.
This piece still has the original white color. Most of the Mint State copper-nickel Flying Eagle and Indian Cents I have seen have toning. The toning can be very pretty, but it can also be down right ugly. One of the MS-64 graded Flying Eagle Cents I saw, with a CAC sticker, was ugly IMO. The price was at a premium level because of the CAC sticker. That was an easy pass. People called the copper-nickel cents "nickels" before the nickel five cent piece was introduced in 1866.
Dr. Robert Schuman, M.D. who wrote The True Hard Times Tokens said that slogan was connected to the French supporters of Louis-Philippe who overthrew of the Bourbons in "Three July Days" in 1830. Many Whigs hated Andrew Jackson and regarded him as "a king and a dictator." In fact their collective dislike for Jackson was the main glue which held the party together. The Whigs were hoping for a similar overthow of Jackson.
Doubtless the allusion is to the French Revolution of 1830, known as "Les Trois Glorieuses," "The Three Glorious (Days)." But those days were July 26-29, 1830, and this token states April 8, 9, and 10, 1834. The Whigs it seems were hoping, vainly as it turned out, for a similar "revolution" in New York, to be gained by the ballot.
These Hard Times Token designs summed up the Whig attitude toward Andrew Jackson. These two pieces are common. I think that the second one might be the most common Hard Times Token. Here "King Andrew" is shown tramping on the Constitution, the Bank of the United States and other issues that were important to the Whigs.
Whigs hated Jackson for many reasons. His policies sometimes were more about personal vendettas than wisdom. For instance, much of his opposition to and ultimate destruction of the Bank of the US was rooted in his hatred for Nicolas Biddle, its president. His appointments were often unqualified other than their loyalty and political support. He said any fool could do a government job, and he knowingly put people in office whom even he considered fools. His vast support came mostly from western and rural areas who resented the wealthy eastern banks because they insisted on more or less sound money policies which his supporters perceived as hindering the development of the new lands. His pulling funds from the Bank of the US and his "Specie Circular" (requiring land purchased from the government be paid for in gold or silver) caused the Panic of 1837, for which he was not popularly blamed since he was out of office when it hit. Van Buren's subsequent policies only made it worse. But some of the Hard Times Tokens pointed out the connection, like this one criticizing Van Buren as "I FOLLOW IN THE STEPS OF MY ILLUSTRIOUS PREDECESSOR." The reverse ridicules Van Buren's "subtreasury" system as an "EXECUTIVE EXPERIMENT," because that policy made a bad situation worse, making sure the Panic would cause a five-year depression.
