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Message:: [QUOTE="cwtokenman, post: 189220, member: 2100"]Hello acanthite,  You are correct as your token is a Patriotic Civil War token. The id is 137/395a, and is one of the common ones with an R-1 rating (over 5000 known). The figure on the obverse is Gen. Andrew Jackson. These token dies are ascribed to Frederick B. Smith (hence the "S" below Jackson's bust), who was located at 122 1/2 Fulton Street, New York City, N.Y. during the Civil War. He was born in New York City on December 26, 1811. Smith was a long time engraver, starting as an apprentice under the well known Charles Cushing Wright. At some point in the 1830s he became a partner with James Bale, at which time he engraved various merchant's cards and Hard Times tokens. Later he became a partner to Gustav Horst, and during the Civil War was partnered with Herman Hartmann. Smith moved to Philadelphia in the late 1870s, and there was a publisher of medals with J.H. Diehl. He continued in his engraving profession until he was well into his seventies. Smith's token designs were rather simple, and often designs were repeated. Typically his dies were used to produce large numbers of tokens, basically until they were worn down and filled. Your token is somewhat better than the average strike for that issue. Many Unc examples have far less details than are visible on your token. Smith's workmanship on his tokens is kind of middle of the road, and he seemed to lean towards using lightweight planchets. It is likely that Smith did not consider token engraving to be worthy of his best efforts. Except for a few brass pieces, Smith did not make off metal PCWTs. Kanzinger's 2002 book on cwts values your token at $14 in F/VF, $18 in XF, and $25 in Unc. Those are slightly higher values than the typical R-1 PCWT.[/QUOTE]

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