"Time is Money," a collection.

DCW

Could there be more suited motto for our great hobby?

We spend more than money on our metallic treasures; a lot of time goes into a collection as well. Searching, acquiring, researching, enjoying.

Quite literally, time is money for many of us.

I got to thinking of putting together a collection of tokens utilizing that phrase when these beauties presented themselves.

George T. Hussey ran a courier service at 50 William St. in New York City, filling the need to deliver important documents between various financial institutions without delay. There are two varieties of his token struck in various metals.

Here are a few recent acquisitions of the popular Civil War tokens of New York, "Hussey's Special Message Post."
All are from Q. David Bowers' personal collection, ex. Rich Rossa's own personal collection.

Hussey's Special Message Post, Exigency. Copper PCGS MS65

This is the most colorful gem I've seen of an otherwise "common" civil war token. Every time I look at the obverse it reminds me of the game, "Monopoly."
Hussey's Special Message Post, Exigency. Copper Nickel PCGS MS65.

Unlike the copper example, this one is extremely rare in copper nickel. R9, 2 to 4 known. It is also very eye appealing with sharp features and clean fields. Could easily grade higher in my opinion.
Hussey's Special Message Post, Expediency. PCGS MS63, Brass

Another rare, off metal strike. R9, 2 to 4 known in brass. The darker brass gives way to highlights of blue, green, and magenta. Strong concentric lathe lines give the dreamy appearance of the horse jumping through a time warp. And the locomotive on the reverse? So cool!
Hussey's Special Message Post, Expediency. PCGS MS66RB Copper

If I had to keep only one, this would probably be it. Absolutely beautiful! Nearly full red, this couples a great design with the highest preservation. Not an especially scarce Civil War token at R3, but in this lofty grade it surely stands in a class of its own.
Thanks for looking!

yosclimber

PCGS CoinFacts photo

CaptHenway

Somebody post a 2006 Ben Franklin dollar with the now debunked Continental Dollar on the reverse.

spacehayduke

Gorgeous tokens!! Herez a couple more along the 'Time is Money' them, the CWT is sold but I still have the HTT's.

Best, HT

Paradisefound

What a beautiful arrays of rays Are you looking for the silver one to complete the set?
Congratulations on your acquisition

coinsarefun

@DCW All are beautiful pieces and I agree the MS66RB is a definite keeper!
Besides the mint luster and red remaining it is fully struck.

ricko

Those are great tokens... However, I would differ a bit in the case of coin collectors/numismatists..... In our case, I would say "Money is Time"....since we spend so much time on money.... Cheers, RickO

Zoins

@DCW Love these pieces.

Do we know who the designer, engraver and die sinker was for these pieces?

Are these in slabs with the special QDB "Reference Collection" multi-color inserts?

CWT1863

Amazing tokens! Here is mine:

DCW

@Zoins said:
@DCW Love these pieces.

Do we know who the designer, engraver and die sinker was for these pieces?

Are these in slabs with the special QDB "Reference Collection" multi-color inserts?

These are all slabbed in Dave Bowers Special Label PCGS Holders. He sure had some collection!

As far as the die sinker, I always assumed these tokens were the work of William H. Bridgens, who did many of the NY Civil War tokens. He was also located on William Street, strengthening the probability. I'm not 100 percent sure, though.

bolivarshagnasty

Very nice tokens Dennis! Love the toning on the first one. Merry Christmas!

carabonnair

From the article http://www.novanumismatics.com/george-t-hussey-his-instant-special-message-post-token/

"Unique to all merchants who issued Civil War Tokens, George Hussey is the only known businessman who also issued his own private postage stamps."

jabba

Very nice token collection I love stuff like this collection

291fifth

I don't believe the C. D. Peacock piece is a hard times token. I seem to recall reading some time back that it was a commemorative issued by the company in the early 20th century. The 1837 date refers to the date of the company's founding.

spacehayduke

@291fifth said:
I don't believe the C. D. Peacock piece is a hard times token. I seem to recall reading some time back that it was a commemorative issued by the company in the early 20th century. The 1837 date refers to the date of the company's founding.

You are correct, it was made in the late 19th or early 20th century (forgot which).

Best, SH

DCW

I think there are a couple of varieties of the peacock piece, but I believe yours is from around 1900. The Smith's Clocks piece is a true HTT.

Thanks for the comments, everyone!

Zoins

Thread Revival

Here's my new Time is Money token.

This one is also from Rich Rossa, Steve Tanenbaum, and Q. David Bowers, but it also has an earlier provenance. It is from Bob Grellman before Rich Rossa!

• How manay of Bob Grellman's tokens can be identified?
• How many of the Rossa-Tanenbaum-Bowers tokens have a provenance before Rossa?

SimpleCollector

Well, I can tell that I dabble in the same area as a few of you. This was actually my most recent addition... may get slabbed next year...liked the motto and had wanted one for my collection...

DCW

@Zoins said:
Thread Revival

Here's my new Time is Money token.

This one is also from Rich Rossa, Steve Tanenbaum, and Q. David Bowers, but it also has an earlier provenance. It is from Bob Grellman before Rich Rossa!

• How manay of Bob Grellman's tokens can be identified?
• How many of the Rossa-Tanenbaum-Bowers tokens have a provenance before Rossa?

That is a rare one, but I often wonder if this is post-War or a copy of the original die? The crude Time is Money stock die looks a lot like it was reproduced in the same manner of Higgins' Primitives.
Bob Grellman Ive never heard of. Perhaps Cindy Grellman is the collector you are referring to? She had a huge collection of CWTs

tokenpro

You may not of heard of Bob Grellman but Cindy did - they were married for a number of years. Bob Grellman and Chris Victor McCawley ran early American copper auctions including EAC sales and sales of a number of better copper collections. Cindy is currently secretary of FUN. It is entirely possible that the piece came through with some early copper if the Stack'sBowers auction description notes (ex-Bob Grellman) are correct.

Cindy had a very nice collection formed in the 80's & 90's in the era of other significant collections that ran into the 00's such as Farrell, McFerran, South, Bleviss, etc., etc., some smaller and some larger.

The piece appears to be copper plated lead - while a couple other NYC tokens are made of lead, even the catalog notes that "many of those still listed as lead may actually be zinc and include cast counterfeits". The fact that the piece has been known for 40+/- years and yet was delisted from the current CW Patriotic catalog (and was auctioned as such) should suggest the regard in which it is currently held as a possible CWT.

Zoins

@tokenpro said:
You may not of heard of Bob Grellman but Cindy did - they were married for a number of years. Bob Grellman and Chris Victor McCawley ran early American copper auctions including EAC sales and sales of a number of better copper collections. Cindy is currently secretary of FUN. It is entirely possible that the piece came through with some early copper if the Stack'sBowers auction description notes (ex-Bob Grellman) are correct.

Cindy had a very nice collection formed in the 80's & 90's in the era of other significant collections that ran into the 00's such as Farrell, McFerran, South, Bleviss, etc., etc., some smaller and some larger.

The piece appears to be copper plated lead - while a couple other NYC tokens are made of lead, even the catalog notes that "many of those still listed as lead may actually be zinc and include cast counterfeits". The fact that the piece has been known for 40+/- years and yet was delisted from the current CW Patriotic catalog (and was auctioned as such) should suggest the regard in which it is currently held as a possible CWT.

Thanks for the info! Great to hear about Bob running auctions and EAC sales.

Bob is an EAC Grading Expert according to Shawn A. Yancey:

http://www.earlycoppercoins.com/What-is-EAC-grading_ep_45-1.html

And here's a video of Bob previewing the Dan Holmes Large Cent collection:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YnLMK8zhkM

Not only is this token delisted as a CWT, it's graded as "Details--Damage" by PCGS! However, I love the theme and provenance / pedigree too much to let that stop me given that it wasn't overly expensive.

I have the copper-nickel Rossa-Bowers PCGS MS65 in the OP and wanted to reunite it with this piece as a pair to remind me that sometimes you work hard and things are working perfectly (MS65 copper-nickel) and sometimes things are tough so you have to slog it out (damaged lead). The fact they are both in QDB Reference Collection slabs doesn't hurt. Here they are side by side:

DCW

Great information @tokenpro
Thanks for posting the additional Time is Money piece @Zoins
Even if it is a contemporary "counterfeit" or post-War I like it very much