I was at my LCS looking through a big bin of unsorted world coins and among my pickups were these two American tokens. It looks like the 1837 Hard Times token is a pretty good pickup. The Grand Rapids token doesn't seem to be worth a lot but I think it's neat. It reminds me of one of those old city view thalers from the German states.
The HTT is a great pickup from a bin of unsorted coins. I wouldn't expect to see one there. Sometimes it pays off to go through them. Bruce
Love these! Every once in a while I spot one of these at a local antique shop, or find one for a deal on ebay. These are, in my opinion highly collectable, and an interesting part of American history. I didn't know about these really, until I read an article in Coinage a few years back.
Nice pick up Hiddendragon. Any of the tokens produced during times of a lack of official coinage are quite interesting. British tokens, Conders etc., along with America's Hard Times Tokens, Civil War Patriotic and Store Card Tokens, and first period California Fractional Gold are all fascinating areas worth collecting. I also include Fractional Currency in the mix as well even though they are not metal and were issued by the Federal government, they were a means to address a severe shortage of small denomination coinage. Fortunately there are lots of reference works on these different series and prices are still relatively low compared to "official" coinage. For example, I just picked up a Civil War store card at auction for less than $500, it is listed as a R-10. Like any numismatic collectable, buy the book(s). Happy hunting.
I agree. I have some Conder tokens, Canadian pre-confederation tokens and a few Civil War tokens. I think they're interesting. The fact that they were used as money makes them more interesting than other tokens.
