Civil war Tokens

Riceman

I've decided to collect civil war tokens - not the patriotic tokens but the tokens
issued by various stores in lieu of currency during the war and, initially, to limit
it to my geographical area, Western PA - Eastern, OH.
This is an entirely new area of collecting for me. Are there any board members that are experts in this field?
Are there any particular publications that are a must-have or a should-have? Any guidance would be appreciated.
By the way, is this considered "dark side" collecting? I don't quite get that term.

BillJones

I buy and sell Civil War tokens (CWTs), and I have collected them for over ten years. You are rather unusual in that most collectors start with the patriotic series and then advance to the store cards. Actually both types were used as substitutes for the circulating coinage (mostly cents) of the time.

For me the best thing about the patriotic tokens is that many of them have political slogans and messages, which ties into my general interests in political items. The store cards offer the opportunity to collect pieces from a specific area of the United States. It is interesting to research and read the biographies of the people who issued these pieces, and a fair number of them have some very interesting artwork.

Since there are over 10 thousand varieties of Civil War tokens, no one has ever been able to assemble a complete set. Most people specialize, as you are doing, in a specific area; or they try to get as many varieties as possible. The really great collections usually top off at around 5,500 to 6,000 different varieties.

As for references, U.S. Civil War Store Cards by George and Melvin Fuld (second edition) is the classic work and still the best source for information. I would also obtain a copy of the Patriotic book by the Fulds as well. It contains a great deal of useful background and historical information. Other works are said to be in the works, but so far they have not made it to print.

Once you have the Fuld reference books, The Civil War Token Collection Guide by Bryon Kansinger is quite useful. It contains ideas about collecting these tokens and lists of varieties that will save you some leg work. This book as has an evaluation guide. The price guide is now getting outdated, (most prices are now higher) but it is still the best from at least a relative point of view.

Finally I would join the Civil War Token Society. They have a quarterly magazine and sell reprints of the past issues of their magazines, which contain a wealth of information. The Society also sells reference books at attractive discounts.

kranky

Boy, BillJones packs a lot of information into a few lines! Someday I'll learn to be as succinct.

All I can add, Riceman, is to send a PM to PTVETTER and ask if he knows any dealers from around here who carry store cards from the area.

Have you found any yet? And if you ever run into a store card from Swissvale, LMK. I don't even know if there are any.

thebeav

<< <i>Boy, BillJones packs a lot of information into a few lines! >>



Boy, I'll say !!
An area of collecting that generally finds many numismatists at least dabbling.....Thanks for the info !!

Paul

mrearlygold

Is there a similar group for Hard Times Tokens????

Bill do you know or does anyone know?

Thanks in advance
Rgrds
Tom

BillJones

I don’t know of any similar group for the Hard Times tokens. Years ago the Early American Coppers Club (EAC) picked up the Hard Times tokens as a subset of their field of interest (these pieces circulated along side the large cents for a time), but coverage there has been minimal.

The reference books for the HTTs are much better than those for the CWTs. Russell Rulau has revised his standard guide many times, and each edition has gotten better and better. Krause has published the Rulau HTT book both as stand-alone references and as part of the United States Tokens comprehensive guide that covers pieces from 1700 to 1900. (There is a CWT section in the United States Token book, but to date it has not been very good.)

Riceman

Thanks for the info Bill Jones. Do you have a storefront or website?
In what part of the country are you located? David.

shylock

Riceman - If you're looking for a website to help learn about store card tokens Bret Palser's portion of Eagle Eye Rare Coins is a great browse. Be sure to check out the incredible Hunting Dogs token they recently sold, it's not a store card but it's an awesome token design.

EagleEye

Thanks for the plug Shylock,

Riceman,
Beyond the great advice by Bill Jones, I would say limiting the scope of your collection is a very good idea. While CWT's are available in great quantity in circ condition for $10 - $20, I would say buying the best quality pieces in NGC certified holders is the best way to go, both for esthetic qualties, and future appreciation.

Call Bret at our office, he loves to talk about CWT's 866-323-2646

www.civilwartoken.com

coinguy89

Hey Riceman, am glad you've decided to take up cwt's. BillJones, Eagle Eye, Goose3, and I are the only ones I know of (on the boards) that are into cwts. I would have typed what Bill Did, but he got to the thread before me. I've been collecting cwt's for about two months now. I have obtained most of the reading avalable on the subject, accept the book on store cards, which I hope to save up for soon. Reading in this part of the hobby is what I find to be the most enjoyable. I don't even own that many tokens and im having more fun than with U.S coins.

I would advice you to join the Civil War Token Society. It is the best place to start. Memberships are so cheap too. You recieve a quarterly newsletter that is packed with fun and interesting information, along with oppurtunities to save money on books. It will also be a great way to let dealers know what your looking for and to find dealers who have what you want. It will well be worth the meager amount of money.

Most importantly have fun. I would say develop some kind of theme to your collecting, which it appears that your doing. Hopefully you'll branch off into patriotics too, but I can't ask for everything. Remember knowledge is power, learn what you can, have fun, and you'll be fine.

P.S I live in the western Ohio area, PM me if you ever have any questions concerning cwt's or just want to talk.

Check your PM's BillJones!

Gemini

<< <i>Hey Riceman, am glad you've decided to take up cwt's. BillJones, Eagle Eye, Goose3, and I are the only ones I know of (on the boards) that are into cwts. >>



You can add me to this list of serious collectors having collected CWT's and HTT's since the early 60's and also member #1099 of the CWTS. I quess with this small amount of interested collectors in tokens it will be a long time in coming to having a token discussion area on these boards.

coinguy89

<< <i>

<< <i>Hey Riceman, am glad you've decided to take up cwt's. BillJones, Eagle Eye, Goose3, and I are the only ones I know of (on the boards) that are into cwts. >>



You can add me to this list of serious collectors having collected CWT's and HTT's since the early 60's and also member #1099 of the CWTS. I quess with this small amount of interested collectors in tokens it will be a long time in coming to having a token discussion area on these boards. >>



I'll be glad to add you to that list. Maybe i'll put a list of all of you guys in my sig so that if anybody has any questions or needs help, they can just refer to one of us. If one doesn't know, another one can. Yeah, I know, there is very little interest for tokens on these boards, but we'll be able to do something in the future im sure of it.

Lakesammman

coinguy89

Hey there we go.

Lakesammman

This one is struck over a 1859 IHC - you can see the date if you look closely.

coinguy89

So you collect the ones struck over that U.S cent?

goose3

I'm still waiting on Lakes to sell his ones struck over FE cents to me!!


I am sticking to Monitors for now until something else catches my eye. I am thinking of acquiring the few tokens from my city.

I really like the Patriotics but do enjoy some of the designs on the storecards too.

LittleBitOEverything

Wow like the topic, kind of came up just in time, I'm looking to purchase one here soon for are coin club meeting. Were going to do a little show and tell. (at least i'll be able to show it...since I just started to look at these), some are quite interesting too. I'll be scanning the Bay of E here pretty soon.

Oh and by the way if anyone lives in the Northwest part of Ohio (Toledo, Oregon,Maumee,Perrysburg...etc)

There is a coinclub that meets on the 1st Thursday of every month (GCCC=Glass City Coin Club) If anyone is interested PM me and I can give you directions or some information on it. We currently have about 22-27 members. Always looking for new members!

Thanxx

Eric

goose3

Eric if that wasn't so far I'd come once in a while.

I'm north of Mansfield in Shelby so that's probably 1.5 hours for me.

LittleBitOEverything

Yeah that is quite a haul, we actually meet at the Elks club in Maumee nice little spot. I feel like a youngin in there at times.lol even thought im in my 30's. Still ok though Alot of knowledge to harvest in there!

coinguy89

I might be attending the next show coming up. I hope to atleast. I only live about an hour away in Oregon, but my dad doesn't like to drive that far that late.

Newmismatist

<< <i>Hey Riceman, am glad you've decided to take up cwt's. BillJones, Eagle Eye, Goose3, and I are the only ones I know of (on the boards) that are into cwts. >>



I have a couple of hundred raw ones - mostly high grade and a bunch of slabbed ones - so I guess I collect 'em also - I think I have a bunch of uncs from Ohio - (don't know what part of OH for the small towns, but Cincinnati is probably the 2nd most common city after NY City).

Another dealer in addition to Brett Palser, Rick Snow, Bill Jones is Steve Hayden and I believe his website is civilwartokens.com

All named are great dealers to buy CWTs from (and although I don't know Goose3, by reputation he is also)