Can anyone help...what is this?

Vetter

I found this in a bag of coins I just picked up and have no idea what it is. Any help would be appreciated. Also any value to it?
Thanks

jonathanb

Civil War token. A fairly common variety, worth probably about $10. There's usual a few on eBay at any given time; search for "Gustavus Lindenmueller".

Any other goodies in the bag?

garrynot

Lindenmueller was a New York bar owner, who issued as many as a million store cards / civil war tokens bearing his likeness. Very well known and popular among collectors.

BillJones

The Fuld number is NY AQ-1a, and it's an R-1, very common.

There is a story about Lindenmueller that may or may not be true.

One of the streetcar companies in New York City accepted thousands of these tokens and ones similar for fares. The company went to Lindenmueller and asked him to redeem them. Lindenmueller just laughed at them. According the story that was the beginning for the legislation passed by Congress in 1864 that outlawed the use of privately issued tokens in place of U.S. coinage and Fractional Currency. Not long after that the bronze cent and the two cent piece were introduced to relieve the coin shortage followed by the Nickel Three Cent Piece in 1865 and the Shield Nickel in 1866.

The piece you have is only worth $10 or less because it is pitted. If it had better surfaces it would be worth $15 or $16.