Civil War Tokens
HiBucky
Posts: 625 ✭✭✭
I saw some Civil War Tokens listed in the Buy and Sell. I have some I put away long, long time ago. Well these are something I don't really collect. I stopped at the bank Friday and dug through a few things until I found them .. All 250+ tokens that I had squirreled away many years ago... I had some home and I listed them on E-Bay a while ago and they sold for around $20-26 each.. The ones I sold were average but the ones from the bank are average condition to Unc-Circulated. So many different varieties exist as I see it another learning curve. I am not really sure that it is what I want to do. I will tell you that these were put away in 1967. Do you guys think any of these could contain varieties that have never been seen before? Or are the books written on these varieties up to date, with nothing else to be found?
Comments
The new storecard book 3rd edition came out last year, and the patriotics should be coming this fall. In that sense, it is "up to date."
That being said, the field of civil war tokens is immense and ever changing. No one can ever say with certainty that there is nothing left to discover.
I would make a list, take a few photos.
I will help you in any way that I can.
Check in over at the civil war token society for starters:
www.cwtsociety.com
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
Check out Steve Hayden's website or find him on ebay.
The thing to do is to get the two books, attribute what you have, and see if any of them are unlisted. At this point it would be hard for you have anything new. Most often it is a muleing of two dies that was not previously known. Some of these pieces were struck after the war when Civil War Token. collectors become more numerous. That is also when a lot of the off-metal pieces were made.
Be sure to check for under type coins as well, most commonly IHC's.
As mentioned, follow Steve Hayden's auctions on his website and eBay. This is very useful for pricing information.
You can learn a lot about tokens and the market by following his auctions.
Additionally, you can check out CWToken.com for information including die information by Fuld number.
Beyond specific Civil War Token (CWT) info, it's nice to check out Heritage and eBay.
If they have been 'put away 'since 1967', they are well worth checking out.... certainly worth a week or two of diligent effort.... there seems to be a healthy market for these tokens... Good luck, Cheers, RickO
There are some nice books on them and I'm sure there are some clubs out there...
Coin Club Benefit auctions ..... View the Lots
If you get serious about the CWTs, it's well worth your while to join the Civil War Token Society. They have a quarterly magazine, and they also offer deals on the books. There are reprints of the magazine, which has been around since the 1960s, which contain a wealth of information.
I was told that the number of counterfeit CWT seen in the "market" has increased for at least a year. I spoke with an ICG authenticator at the Venice coin show this weekend who is preparing an article about them for Numismatic News. Your coins put away a pretty safe, although, CWT have always been counterfeited - just probably not for numismatic profit as before around 1970 most were only selling for a few bucks.
Given the number of these that get sold unslabbed, this is definitely worth looking out for. Thanks for mentioning it.
Interesting that ICG mentioned this. Haven't seen too many CWTs in their holders yet.