After the hunt, taxidermy, mounting the throphy on the wall, even better then another new safari is.

Broadstruck

flipping through the pages an old auction catalog and discovering a previously unknown provenance!

PCAC #72 December 6, 2003 - The Charles Litman Collection Of Hard Times Tokens -

LOT 104 PLATED "A beautiful brown Uncirculated token with some red adhering to the reverse. A small mark on the cheek. Liberty Head on the obverse of this token is the closest facsimile of the U.S. large cent on any Hard Times token. This is a premium grade for this scarce R4 token which seldom appears higher then Fine."



Description from last years Stacks/Bowers sale -

New York--New York. 1834 Ezra B. Sweet. Low-140, HT-334. Rarity-4. Copper. MS-66 BN (NGC). Description: Delightful, glossy, medium-brown patina accents a magnificent strike. This type is significantly rarer than sometimes stated. The two pieces offered in the Dice-Hicks Collection Sale (Stack's, 7/2008) included an example of this variety that realized $1,092.50. NGC Census: only 1; with none finer.

D

From start to finish, this post makes me feel like a little fish. .





-D

Broadstruck

<< <i>From start to finish, this post makes me feel like a little fish >>



I always thought you where a little cat stuck in a loaf of bread

ambro51

Can you take it further back?

kaz

That's really cool. I think the irregular lettering on the rev is great.
Nice research, Broadstruck!

coinsarefun

Now that's cool!

You may even call that " the sweet spot"

Broadstruck

<< <i>Can you take it further back? >>



Knowing it's ex Charles Litman it's like a Hard Times Token version of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon...

Charles Litman purchased the Donald Miller collection from David Bowers after John Ford had a chance to cherry pick.

This example however was not in Ford's collection as his was weakly struck on the reverse from 6-9pm along the peripheral lettering which is obliterated.

Donald Miller purchased the George Tilden collection from Kenneth Rendell in 1957.

Looking over the Rendell Tilden sale listing item #129 is a Low-140 described as a Uncirculated Beauty from the Bird Collection.

Robert Bird's collection was used in Edgar Adams 1914 photographic plates of Lyman Low's Hard Times Tokens.

However looking at the Adams plates with a loupe is tough as the matrix dot printing falls apart.

MidLifeCrisis

<< <i>Now that's cool!

You may even call that " the sweet spot" >>

ambro51

Pedigrees are great, and taking it 'back' even further is really interesting.

Id like to see something new come into play, lets call it the 'green book'...what that is, is a listing of the coins chronology. Full pedigree history, grading history, auction history......everything known.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

D

I've had this avatar since the day I signed up for the forums. I think at some point, probably 15 years from now when I hit 10,000 posts; I might change it and just have my title saying catloaf.

-D

bosco5041

Broadstruck, you make tokens very interesting. I only have a dozen or so common ones and can't contribute anything to this thread except to say that someday I would like to put together a small collection of them. They can be very interesting, inexpensive and fun to collect.HTT's are a perfect example of anybody can collect interesting coins or tokens on a small budget.

ambro51

I like the way Broaddie adds in all the historic detail which make these pieces something extra than just a set of letter and number designations. Thats what sets them apart from so many other coins, just, variety in every respect. Aside from the large percentage of production by Scovill....there is a great amount of ground to cover with HTTs.

He is, of course, collecting these at a stratospheric level. Not that there is anything wrong with that all...but all in all, if you have a modest budget, and settle for everyday condition pieces...you can make quite an extensive collection of Low numbers.

Still important today and easily available in reprint on ebay, Lyman Lows catalog of HTTs, though old, is still the backbone of the series knowledge. Rulaus' book expands on this in many ways and is available also, in an abridged version..... and for maybe a 50$investment in a book or two.....you can learn a lot about these tokens. ebay is a grand hunting ground and if you have some knowledge and a few references and some $$$ in your paypal account you can have a spendid, warm and fuzzy time beginning a nice little collection.

..........Far more interesting than ASEs, I assure you.