Two heads are better than one...A Civil War token rarity
DCW
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Here is a very rare version of a extremely common Civil War token.
F-630AQ-8a Gustavus Lindenmueller, New York. PCGS MS64BN ex. Rossa, Bowers.
As you can see, it's a double header! The two obverse dies of Lindenmueller's famous tokens bearing his likeness were muled together to form this special piece of which only a couple are known. I've personally never seen another.
Had to pick up its counterpart, the two tailed monster which features beer mugs:
F-630AQ-7a, Gustavus Lindenmueller, New York. PCGS MS64BN, ex. Rossa, Bowers
Lindenmueller was an interesting character. He was arrested for violating the "blue laws" of the day that closed establishments serving liquor on Sundays. The Germans drink beer for breakfast, so the writing was basically on the wall.
He is remembered best for these quarter sized tokens which were issued to the tune of a million or so pieces during the War of Rebellion. Legend has it, though no definitive proof exists, that the railroad tried to redeem a large quantity that they had accepted as payment of services and he laughed all the way to the bank. This led to the government banning the use of private "money" in 1864.
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
Comments
Amazing! Another set of wonderful Rossa-QDB-DCW tokens!
I wonder how many dies they made for each side.
I think you might get more responses if you titled the thread:
Two beers are better than one
Or perhaps "DCW posts a token and the forum says nothing?"
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
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I read the same thing. As a tool of commerce his stuff was effective. Municipal government assumed incorrectly that these tokens had reimbursement value from the banks. What a financial hit that must have been. Peace Roy
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You have some awesome tokens DCW. Thanks for posting.
Nice tokens.... the mugs are different between the two 'tails' coins...as are the beards/portraits...So must have been a lot of different dies....Cheers, RickO
Great eye! New York on the reverse is also very different.
It would be nice for the catalog to recognize the various die varieties.
Definitely agree with this. There are some very amazing tokens. I think it would great to track these with the DCW provenance
I mean, we know there were at least two, right?
Sean Reynolds
"Keep in mind that most of what passes as numismatic information is no more than tested opinion at best, and marketing blather at worst. However, I try to choose my words carefully, since I know that you guys are always watching." - Joe O'Connor
The easy diagnostic on the obverse is the signature / lack of signature of the die sinker L. Roloff under the bust.
There are four obverses and three reverses (two with the beer mug) and a plethora of combinations and metal varieties listed for Mr. Lindenmueller (and almost as many variations of the probably apocryphal redemption refusal story).
Checked my HTT and CWT binder to confirm I've got an 1863 Lindenmueller NY 630 AQ-1a with a RIDB on the rev. I love that guys beard. Peace Roy
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Thanks for the history, amazing that you have both 2-head and 2-tail varieties.
Outstanding! I have not seen those before. Great provenance too. Thanks for sharing!
ANA-LM, CWTS-LM, NBS, TAMS, ANS
Great info!
Is there any catalog listing the varieties?
??? U.S. Civil War Store Cards, 3rd Edition, George And Melvin Fuld, available through most book dealers but best purchased at a discount by joining the Civil War Token Society and receiving the member's price on all the CWTS catalogs.
http://cwtsociety.com/
I think it was Brooklyn Gallery that had a promo long ago that was something like 4 CWT's for $25 or so. I gave it a try and one of them was this token in it's normal configuration of course. I was hooked and bought the books and joined CWTS and had fun collecting different ones for years. So old long-beard Gustav was a big influence on my collection.
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