What the heck is this? Indian Head Cent Token???

mnmcoin

What is the history?

Does it have any value?

thanks

morris <><

Newmismatist

A New York City Civil War Token - struck in 1863 when coins were in short supply because of the Civil War - this is a "Store Card"

Looks XF-AU-ish, Its R2, Fuld # is 630AU-1a, Kanzinger value is $15 XF, $20 Unc

lordmarcovan

What he said. Many merchants struck private tokens to fill the need for small change, as coinage was in very short supply during the war. Civil War tokens had a variety of designs, many of them patriotic. A few (like that one) mimicked the designs of the regular coinage- there were a lot of Indian Head CWT's.

PS- your token is listed in Rulau's Standard Catalog of U.S. Tokens, 1700-1900 (Krause Publications, 1994) as CWT variety 630AU-1a, with a rarity rating of R2. Values are $4 VG, $6 VF, $8 EF, and $15 UNC. Yours looks VF-EF to me. Maybe a strong VF or a low EF, though I will defer to those with more experience. In other words, it's worth about seven bucks, according to the catalog.

CWT's can be surprisingly affordable, and their variety of designs and themes, as well as their history, make them quite appealing.

mnmcoin

Cool! Thanks for the info. Is there a book on them? Were many of them created? Many different ones as well?

morris <><

lordmarcovan

See my edited post above.

I just noticed that Newmismatist answered your question before me, and probably with more up-to-date and specialized resources. I just happened to have Rulau sitting around for some of those cool old tokens that occasionally turn up when I'm out detecting.

Newmismatist

<< <i>Cool! Thanks for the info. Is there a book on them? Were many of them created? Many different ones as well?

morris <>< >>



Morris counting varieties and different metals there's around 8-10,000 different varieties. Putting to gether a complete set of CWTs would take a few months, at least. Fuld book on CW Store Cards is the most extensive, Kanzinger has a price guide. If you want exact titles, PM me.

There are quite a few available, but really nice ones are scarce. Eagle Eye Rare Coins sells high grade CWTs on their web-site.

Link to Eagle Eye's CWT token page

Many of these CWTs tokens are a bargain considering their scarcity. Also, they are very interesting historically. I have one from "Fredrick Miller - Planck Road Brewery" from Milwaukee WI, now known as the Miller Brewing Co. - There's another from NY - Eastman college, the same family that founded Eastman Kodak.

dorkkarl

that's a 30 $ coin on ebay.

K S