Interesting delisted Civil War Token die - Fuld-537?

Zoins

This is an interesting pair of tokens by George Hampden Lovett (1824 -1894), using the Fuld-537 1864 McPherson die. At first I thought this may have been a 1876 piece using a 1864 Civil War token die, and indeed it does have a Fuld die number, but the "1864" die seems to be a new die as of 1876 due to the statue being depicted not being unveiled until then.

Major General McPherson was the 3rd commander of the Union's Army of the Tennessee during the Civil War and was the second highest Union officer to die during battle. He died in a battle facing his former classmate, General John Bell Hood.

• Army of the Tennessee: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_of_the_Tennessee
• Major General James Birdseye McPherson: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_B._McPherson
• General John Bell Hood: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bell_Hood

What's interesting about this is that it seems the 1964 McPherson die is listed as Fuld-537 in two Civil War Token references. What's interesting is that it's hard to track down other references to Fuld-537 so it seems this designation may not be used any more.

1876 McPherson - Society Army of the Tennessee - Copper - J-UN-3 DC-27a PCGS MS64RB - Sarasota Numismatics

1876 McPherson - Society Army of the Tennessee - Silver - J-UN-3 DC-27c PCGS MS62 - Sarasota Numismatics

Slab photos are courtesy of Sarasota Numismatics.

Here's an article from the 2008 journal of the Civil War Token Society.

• https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/515651?page=52

The following is from CoinHelp.net (currently has failing TLS certificate);

https://coinhelp.net/mcpherson-on-horseback/

McPherson On Horseback

Patriotic Civil War Tokens

The best guess for the Major General James B. McPherson Patriotic Civil War Token is that the sinker, George H., expected a gathering of veterans from the Army of The Tennessee for a tenth anniversary in Washington, D.C., at which the equestrian statue of McPherson would be unveiled. This was an opportunity to produce and sell tokens as souvenirs; the reverse was blank and used for personal engraving. Of course, George H. felt the need to produce a few rarities for collectors, so he proceeded to strike a few mulings in very limited numbers using his Pater Patriae die and General Ulysses S. Grant die! While shown as a Patriotic Civil War Token only in brass, this token is also found in white metal and copper. These are frequently classified as medalets, instead of tokens.

McPherson dies in 1864. The problem is that the statue was erected in 1876, which would put any McPherson equestrian statue tokens well after the Civil War. In this author’s opinion, this token is questionable being attributed as a Patriotic Civil War Token.

Zoins

Regarding Fuld-113/537a, it seems that the Fuld-537 designation isn't used any more.

This a 2019 Stack's Bowers listing, which lists it as Musante GW-341, Baker-642, instead of Fuld-113/537b.

Pater Patriae - McPherson Medalet - 21 mm, Brass
Musante GW-341, Baker-642
SB Gem Proof
Provenance: F.C.C. Boyd, Wayte Raymond, John Jay Ford Jr., Dr. Wolfgang Schuster, Q. David Bowers

• Sale: https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-GO9G0/undated-ca-1876-pater-patriae-mcpherson-medalet-brass-21-mm-musante-gw-341-baker-642-gem-proof

tokenpro

The 537 Patriotic die is listed as non-contemporary in the 6th Edition of the Patriotic CW catalog and has been considered non-contemporary for some time among CW dealers & collectors. It is always best case research to use the current status of a die (i.e. latest catalog edition) before venturing too far into a historical question or analysis. This is repeatedly important in using the current editions of the Civil War, Hard Times and transportation catalogs as the listings are often reinterpreted in light of new research.

Zoins

Thanks for the info @tokenpro!

I see the 6th Edition of the Patriotic CW catalog is still listed as very new (10 new icons) on the CWTS website and the CWTS Journal article is from 2008. What do you mean by "some time"?

It also seems that there's no electronic version available. For the hobby to evolve, I think it's very important to have electronic references, whether they are online or not. For example, I love using my PDF version of the 4th Edition of the Rulau US Tokens catalog and addendum. Do you know if this reference is available electronically? If it is, I'll get it in a heartbeat, but I didn't see one.

http://www.cwtsociety.com/books.shtml

Zoins

Here's Fuld-113 which is still associated with 1860-1865 so it seems George Lovett kept that die for 2 decades.

(1860-65) Token F-113/114Aa Copper George Washington Patriotic, BN (Regular Strike)

• CoinFacts: https://www.pcgs.com/coinfacts/coin/1860-65-token-f-113-114aa-copper-george-washington-patriotic-bn/658016

lovettcollector

Anyone interested is seeing more about the McPherson medals go to http://ghlovett2.blogspot.com/p/civil-war-figures.html and scroll to the bottom of the page.

I think there is no doubt these small medals were struck for the occasion of the dedication of the McPherson statue.  Those with the 'Society Army of  the Tennessee' are by far the most numerous. All the other mulings, including the Washington die, are much scarcer. As was George H's habit he probably had dies of the same size and some planchetts of the right size in his shop so decided to strike off a few pieces for collectors. Maybe at the request of a collector or dealer or simply to sell as a rarity.