"Good For A Scent" token: An exciting new discovery

DCW

May I present to you an exciting new discovery among Civil War tokens, and more specifically the tokens of Joseph H. Merriam of Boston, Massachusetts.
Good For A Scent/ Good For A Drink 2 1/2 Chapman Place, 19mm white metal. Presumed Unique

Full disclosure: This token resided in the reknowned collection of Steve Tanenbaum via Rich Hartzog in the early 1990s. So I realize this thread is a little like Columbus discovering America.

But like that historic event in 1492, this piece is still virtually unknown to the rest of the world! I specialize in Merriam's work, and its existence has eluded me until I purchased it from Steve Hayden recently.

Mr. Hayden relayed the following info to me upon its sale:
"Steve owned it for many years trying to tie down the attribution to a person and a Civil War date...tough when it only has an address. That address is apparently shared in the 1863-1868 Boston directories by Jerome Boles 1863-65 and Benjamin A. Kimball 1866-68."

It is listed in the 3rd edition of the Storecard book under the addendum in "Possible Civil War tokens." No picture, and the description was vague, so I didn't associate this piece with the Good For A Scent reverse die.

So what do we know about this piece?

Even in this heavily worn condition, it is obvious that the lettering on obverse/reverse dies is an exact match. That tells me two things:

1. This token comes from Merriam's own hand, rather than some muling with another die sinker and
2. It is most likely struck for a business in Boston, Massachusetts, where the vast majority of Merriam's business was conducted.

We know from 19th Century maps of Boston that Chapman Place is in the neighborhood of Merriam's shop, directly in the middle of surrounding businesses that also ordered tokens from him.

1867 Fire Insurance Map of Boston
The yellow dot represents Merriam's shop at 18 Brattle Sq., the white dot is 2 1/2 Chapman Place. The red dots are other businesses for which Merriam struck tokens.

An address, but no name! Oh, why couldn't Merriam have included the business name?

We see the opposite with another rare Good For A Scent variety, "Sam's Inn." A name and no address.
Sam's Inn, 10

Although there's no record of Sam's Inn in Boston's wartime directories, there is still enough here for me to believe that it is a Boston establishment. It has been attributed to Massachusetts based on the use of Merriam's Good For A Scent die, but close inspection of the business side reveals the hand of Merriam once again.
Compare to the reverse die of his Apollo Gardens, 576 Washington St. token:

Stylistically very similar if not identical.

In a lot of ways, this new piece most closely resembles the extremely rare "Excelsior Club" token by Merriam.
Excelsior Club, 22 Elm St.

They are both struck in soft white metal and heavily circulated, indicative of frequent use in commerce. Curiously, both are sole survivors with attributions that are speculative at best, completely wrong at worst.

What really complicates things is that there is a known Good For A Scent token paired with a reverse die from Norfolk, VA that is considered post-war.
F. Pfeiffer & Co. Norfolk, VA

So, the Good For a Scent die was used at least once to strike tokens outside of the Boston area. Just how many other tokens, if any, were struck in other states remains a mystery.

The research goes on. It's what makes this niche of the hobby so interesting.
Hope you enjoyed the read! It will all be in my book someday,
Dennis

Boosibri

Excellent read!

Namvet69

I too have used old fire insurance maps to find where old buildings once were, metal detectorists trick of the trade. Congrats on your acquisition. Peace Roy

CWT1863

Enjoyable read. Thanks! Congrats on the new piece!

kaz

Cool piece, and really good write up. I love seeing the historic context of these pieces!

Zoins

Great token and provenance Den!

It found its way to the right collection!

• Rich Hartzog
• Steve Tanenbaum
• Steve Hayden
• @DCW

WaterSport

Well Done!!

WS

coinsarefun

Congratulations Dennis! Great detective work. I will tend to agree with your synopsis
and fantastic write up. I’m anxiously awaiting your book.

ricko

Excellent write-up and history. Thanks for the information and pictures. Always liked this token, never did get one. Might be time to fix that.... Cheers, RickO

yspsales

Thank you for the diligent work and informative post!

JBK

That was a brilliant marketing tool. Offer a free drink but don't put the name of the establishment on the token.

Plus, it is so worn. I assume it got most of that wear after its original purpose expired. So many questions....

Here's my totally unfounded hypothesis: it was issued for an illegal brothel or bar, hence no name.

DCW

A couple of interesting points to add to the story. From the same 1867 Fire Insurance map, it shows the peculiar descension of addresses from 14, 13, 12, 11, and then...2 1/2 Chapman Place.

So it seems to lend additional credence to the theory that this is indeed a token from Boston.
Furthermore that address is listed from 1862 to at least 1867 as both a "saloon" and a "clubhouse!"
The wartime date had the establishment owned by the aforementioned Jerome Boles.

He was a prominent lumber merchant who abruptly ended his ties with the family business and began to run saloons. He died on a fishing trip to Vermont in the summer of 1870 after experiencing "delirium tremens," a type of alcohol withdrawal that proved fatal. They found his body in an advanced stage of decomposition after having gone missing for 3 days.
It seems most probable that the token for 2 1/2 Chapman was struck for him. But...
In the 1867 BOSTON DIRECTORIES, we have another establishment at 2 1/2 Chapman Pl. (again unnamed) owned by a Benjamin A. Kimball. It is listed as a "clubhouse."
This is rather unfortunate news to the story, as if anything else was there at that address (like a hardware store, stencils, etc.) it would make the Good For A Drink at 2 1/2 Chapman Pl. attributable solely to Boles.
Without a business name on the token itself, we are resigned to ponder between these two gentlemen.

I can't help but wonder if the three mysterious pieces (Excelsior Club, Sam's Inn, and 2 1/2 Chapman Place) are somehow connected. Perhaps one holds a clue to the others, waiting to be unlocked by investigation or luck.

Thank you to those members who reached out with interest and contributions to the research. It really brings these metal discs alive!

JBK

What is the Sam's Inn token made of? Maybe that token and the free drink token are the same place.

DCW

@JBK
They're both made of "white metal," or tin as Merriam called it.
It's possible that Sam's Inn or the Excelsior Club at 22 Elm were saloons managed by Jerome Boles along with the clubhouse at 2 1/2 Chapman.
Ah, if only his name were "Samuel Boles!"

JBK

Looks like lots of blue collar shops in the area. Those must have been some wild bars where lots of hard drinking occurred.

QE Guy

Hey, I've got one of the Sam's Inn tokens - good to see another one on these forums!

DCW

@QE Guy said:
Hey, I've got one of the Sam's Inn tokens

Nice. This is a rare piece, underrated in my opinion because the location is unknown.

DCW

Interesting update:
Apparently there was a pistol range adjacent to the property featured on this token on Chapman Place, and it was reportedly visited by John Wilkes Booth in the weeks preceding the assassination of President Lincoln.

Of course, my mind is imagining the assassin sliding the above token across the counter at the bar next door. Sitting there with a stiff drink in hand, muttering to himself in a guttural crescendo, "Sic Semper Tyrannis...Sic Semper Tyrannis!”

Zoins

CRO just sold this one which got me wondering how many dies is the Good for a Scent die paired with? It would be great to see a list and some specimens of each type!

1863 Merriam Store Card - Copper, Plain Edge - F-115E-1a - NGC MS67BN - Ex. John Agre

https://www.coinraritiesonline.com/product/1863-good-for-a-scent-token-16-copy/

DCW

@Zoins
There are 8 die pairs, not counting "off metals." At some point I'll start a thread with all of the "dog pound" represented!

By the way, that example sold by CRO was a whopping $7500. These tokens have really gotten expensive!

DCW

By the way, I spent a few days in Boston last week and saw Chapman Place from the bus. Indeed, there was a shooting gallery in the 1860s right next to the Parker House Hotel. This was reportedly visited by John Wilkes Booth in April 1865. The story is even more interesting... Apparently, Booth stayed at the Parker House on one of his many visits to Boston earlier in the War and met with Confederate Secret Service agents about participating in the kidnapping of President Lincoln.
Why would they meet in the North? 🤔I don't have an answer to that! But I've read that in a couple different places now. Kind of adds a little intrigue to the token with the establishment right there.
Now I have to go back and see if 2 1/2 is still on Chapman Pl. Time constraints and family members prevented me from doing so on this trip.