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Newp for my HTT collection... Far scarcer then the rarity scale indicates.
Broadstruck
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1837 Haselton & Palmer / A.C. Smith, Dover, New Hampshire, HT-192 / Low-131, Copper, Rulau Rarity-2.
As I mentioned in the rarity thread that sometimes a coin far lower on the scale can be just as tough if not tougher to locate. As the following duel merchant token is much scarcer than its rarity indicates. This is the toughest of the 3 available New Hampshire Hard Times tokens and rarely seen above XF. Lyman Low in 1899 had this rated as “Not So Common” and Garrett who worked directly with Low never owned an example. Virgil Brand even after his nephew continued to work on the collection for 25 years possessed an XF. John Ford who spent 50 years with this series only managed an AU example. Benjamin Wright in his 1901 works on to tokens considered this a Rarity-4. NGC in over a decade of grading this series has only graded 3-4 examples, 2 being below AU. Within the last year 2 (possibly the same token twice) lower grade examples have crossed Ebay, but prior to these I don’t recall having seen any for 5-6 years in daily searches.
Ex: Lionel Ruddick Collection B&M 1989 lot description = An absolutely outstanding example of this popular Dover, New Hampshire issue. Both obverse and reverse have full, unbroken, and quite spectacular mint luster which creates cartwheels on both sides. In addition is this where not enough both sides are toned in exceptionally lovely shades of iridescent pale green, purple, indigo, rose, gray brown, and golden brown hues. In terms of quality this probably ranks as the finest of all of the Hard Times Tokens collected by Lionel Ruddick and places among the finest known of this issue.
A.C. Smith was a dealer in crockery during the hard times area. Most major cities of this period had a crockery manufacturer, a factory that would mine local clay, shape it, decorate it, and fire it. In these clay pots of varying sizes food and drink were stored, as obviously there were no refrigerators and the ice man had not yet become a regular feature of daily lives.
As I mentioned in the rarity thread that sometimes a coin far lower on the scale can be just as tough if not tougher to locate. As the following duel merchant token is much scarcer than its rarity indicates. This is the toughest of the 3 available New Hampshire Hard Times tokens and rarely seen above XF. Lyman Low in 1899 had this rated as “Not So Common” and Garrett who worked directly with Low never owned an example. Virgil Brand even after his nephew continued to work on the collection for 25 years possessed an XF. John Ford who spent 50 years with this series only managed an AU example. Benjamin Wright in his 1901 works on to tokens considered this a Rarity-4. NGC in over a decade of grading this series has only graded 3-4 examples, 2 being below AU. Within the last year 2 (possibly the same token twice) lower grade examples have crossed Ebay, but prior to these I don’t recall having seen any for 5-6 years in daily searches.
Ex: Lionel Ruddick Collection B&M 1989 lot description = An absolutely outstanding example of this popular Dover, New Hampshire issue. Both obverse and reverse have full, unbroken, and quite spectacular mint luster which creates cartwheels on both sides. In addition is this where not enough both sides are toned in exceptionally lovely shades of iridescent pale green, purple, indigo, rose, gray brown, and golden brown hues. In terms of quality this probably ranks as the finest of all of the Hard Times Tokens collected by Lionel Ruddick and places among the finest known of this issue.
A.C. Smith was a dealer in crockery during the hard times area. Most major cities of this period had a crockery manufacturer, a factory that would mine local clay, shape it, decorate it, and fire it. In these clay pots of varying sizes food and drink were stored, as obviously there were no refrigerators and the ice man had not yet become a regular feature of daily lives.
To Err Is Human.... To Collect Err's Is Just Too Much Darn Tootin Fun!
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<< <i>that's nice. the condition is amazingly better than anything i have from that time period. >>
Thanks as I had to do some soul searching on this one as it was many multiples in cost of what an AU example fetches.
Yet in retrospect of what the finest known large cent sells for from that era it was dirt cheap.
Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners.