Neat find in some bulk wheat cents..... civil war token ish

COINS MAKE CENTS

Was going through a few 5 gallon bucks of wheats in the office to sort them out by decade for a customer and this little guy appeared.

Looks like the token is called the "first confederate cent"

Unfortunately there's a little green on it, but still a fun find none the less.

Just thought I would share

ricko

Well that is a unique find.... Good luck in the rest of the search. Cheers, RickO

LanceNewmanOCC

pretty neat one!

i'd be shocked if that isn't a better one too being a possible store card advertising token.

if you want more info, i'd put something in the title to indicate what you found.

johnny9434

thats different and cool

tincup

Nice find!

My Rulau United States Tokens shows it as VA103 from Alexandria Virginia, 1859, Stated value in Fine around $25 or so.

COINS MAKE CENTS

@LanceNewmanOCC said:
pretty neat one!

i'd be shocked if that isn't a better one too being a possible store card advertising token.

if you want more info, i'd put something in the title to indicate what you found.

I think it may be a little better according to ebay sales records

WaterSport

Very nice find,

WS

Steven59

Nice - Well a little green beats the hell out of alot of green - !

124Spider

Being from Alexandria, Va., I recognize that name; there is significant history to that house:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_House_(Alexandria,_Virginia)

DCW

That is a great find. Marshall house was the scene of one of the first casualties of the Civil War, when Lt. Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth was shot dead by the proprietor for taking down the flag of the Confederacy.

This token was struck by Robert Lovett, Jr of the Confederate Cent fame. Uses the same French head of Liberty on this piece, and it is speculated that the Marshall House tokens circulated in the south.

That should definitely not have been in a roll of cents!

jesbroken

Truly neat that one can still find little treasures in the wild. Great luck.
Jim

Treashunt

@DCW said:
That is a great find. Marshall house was the scene of one of the first casualties of the Civil War, when Lt. Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth was shot dead by the proprietor for taking down the flag of the Confederacy.

This token was struck by Robert Lovett, Jr of the Confederate Cent fame. Uses the same French head of Liberty on this piece, and it is speculated that the Marshall House tokens circulated in the south.

That should definitely not have been in a roll of cents!

Thanks for the post.

How scarce? or Common is it?

COINS MAKE CENTS

@Treashunt said:

@DCW said:
That is a great find. Marshall house was the scene of one of the first casualties of the Civil War, when Lt. Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth was shot dead by the proprietor for taking down the flag of the Confederacy.

This token was struck by Robert Lovett, Jr of the Confederate Cent fame. Uses the same French head of Liberty on this piece, and it is speculated that the Marshall House tokens circulated in the south.

That should definitely not have been in a roll of cents!

Thanks for the post.

How scarce? or Common is it?

Seems not many have sold on ebay recently from what I could find. Maybe I looked in the wrong place. Seems the one that did sell were in the 100 to 150 range

tincup

Do bear in mind the info I posted is from Rulau's 4th edition book is somewhat dated... though I think it is the last edition printed in 2004. So while it is a great reference on the tokens... pricing information likely has certainly changed. The $100 mentioned for ebay sales certainly may be more accurate with the times.

All in all... a nice find and surprise. I like it!

Treashunt

@COINS MAKE CENTS said:

@Treashunt said:

@DCW said:
That is a great find. Marshall house was the scene of one of the first casualties of the Civil War, when Lt. Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth was shot dead by the proprietor for taking down the flag of the Confederacy.

This token was struck by Robert Lovett, Jr of the Confederate Cent fame. Uses the same French head of Liberty on this piece, and it is speculated that the Marshall House tokens circulated in the south.

That should definitely not have been in a roll of cents!

Thanks for the post.

How scarce? or Common is it?

Seems not many have sold on ebay recently from what I could find. Maybe I looked in the wrong place. Seems the one that did sell were in the 100 to 150 range

Nice find!

BillJones

@Treashunt said:

@DCW said:
That is a great find. Marshall house was the scene of one of the first casualties of the Civil War, when Lt. Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth was shot dead by the proprietor for taking down the flag of the Confederacy.

This token was struck by Robert Lovett, Jr of the Confederate Cent fame. Uses the same French head of Liberty on this piece, and it is speculated that the Marshall House tokens circulated in the south.

That should definitely not have been in a roll of cents!

Thanks for the post.

How scarce? or Common is it?

The Marshall House token is fairly common. At least it was when I was dealer. The late Steve Tannenbaum used to supply them to me on a regular basis.

Elmer Ellsworth was the first Union officer to die during the Civil War. He went up the stairs to haul down a Confederate flag that was flying on the roof of the building. As he was coming down the stairs, the proprietor, and man named James Jackson, blasted him with a double barreled shotgun. A soldier named Brownell killed Jackson and became a hero. Ellsworth became a Union martyr and Jackson became a Southern martyr. Union supporters hung pictures of Ellsworth in their living rooms.

Lincoln was especially moved because Ellsworth had been a clerk in his law office.

Here are some other items from the incident.

A ferrotype that honored Ellsworth and Brownell

A patriotic cover that was issued to commemorate the incident.

A picture of the hotel. A Marriot Hotel now stands on the site.

The flag still exists.

And here is what the first Confederate flag looked like. No, the "Stars and Bars" was not the national flag of the Confederacy. This design was soon replaced because it looked too much like the Union flag.

Treashunt

@BillJones said:

@Treashunt said:

@DCW said:
That is a great find. Marshall house was the scene of one of the first casualties of the Civil War, when Lt. Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth was shot dead by the proprietor for taking down the flag of the Confederacy.

This token was struck by Robert Lovett, Jr of the Confederate Cent fame. Uses the same French head of Liberty on this piece, and it is speculated that the Marshall House tokens circulated in the south.

That should definitely not have been in a roll of cents!

Thanks for the post.

How scarce? or Common is it?

The Marshall House token is fairly common. At least it was when I was dealer. The late Steve Tannenbaum used to supply them to me on a regular basis.

Elmer Ellsworth was the first Union officer to die during the Civil War. He went up the stairs to haul down a Confederate flag that was flying on the roof of the building. As he was coming down the stairs, the proprietor, and man named James Jackson, blasted him with a double barreled shotgun. A soldier named Brownell killed Jackson and became a hero. Ellsworth became a Union martyr and Jackson became a Southern martyr. Union supporters hung pictures of him in their living rooms.

Here are some other items from the incident.

A ferrotype that honored Ellsworth and Brownell

A patriotic cover that was issued to commemorate the incident.

A picture of the hotel. A Marriot Hotel now stands on the site.

The flag still exists.

And here is what the first Confederate flag looked like. No, the "Stars and Bars" was not the national flag of the Confederacy. This design was soon replaced because it looked too much like the Union flag.

Thank you, great history lesson

lovettcollector

Robert Jr. was fond of the obverse die using it for several other tokens, the M.B. Allebech and Magnolia Hotel storecards (http://rlovettjr.blogspot.com/p/store-cards.html) as well as a very rare one for the William Idler token (http://rlovettjr.blogspot.com/p/merchant-tokens-store-cards.html). What is interesting about that one is that William Idler was the father-in-law of John Haseltine of Confederate Cent fame - that piece using the same die and struck by Robert Jr. Robert Jr. also used the Liberty head on one of his storecards but on that one the R.L. beneath the bust is not present.
(http://rlovettjr.blogspot.com/p/merchant-tokens.html).