Along with those Conder tokens I got the other day at a local auction, I added three more of what was labeled as Hard Times Tokens, a new collecting venue I have entered recently.
Hard Times tokens were issued by private businesses or individuals from 1833-1843 for several reasons. 1) The controversy surrounding the Bank of the United States. 2) Coins were in short supply, so private enterprise(s) used these as "store cards" or "Good fors" as some called, as a business advertising scheme. 3) Tokens resembling current coinage but with enough differences to avoid the counterfeiting laws. 4) As "Mules", die pars from each of the above.
The political coins refer to the Andrew Jackson/Martin Van Buren conflict of bias about the Federal purse, Treasury. Others contain phrases of the times as "Substitute for Shin Plasters", referencing the flood of paper currencies which had the worth of the one issuing which was most often nothing. Kinda sounds like today's "Shinplasters, don't it? My, my, how far we have "progressed"!
Some of these tokens are highly valued and are population sensitive like any coin is. Of the three I gained yesterday of course none is a rarity, all quite common so value is small, under $20 each in their respective condition. I was surprised to find out that one of the three, the last pictured is actually not a Hard Times token of this era at all! There were "Plough" coins around, but this isn't one of them. I will cover that last. The First is a 1833 token with Andrew Jackson holding a sword and a money bag showing his power over the national purse and military with a donkey, which is what it is meant to be, a slur. the second is one put out by Daniel Webster (the Dictionary guy among other feats) in 1841. This is in reference to his standing on the Constitution in many speeches as a Congressman, hence the ship Constitution. This was called "Webster Credit Currency". Bills back then weren't considered "very good"...
Now, as I've stated previously, this last token is not even an American one at all. It is Canadian, minted in 1859 and 1860 with circulation on Prince Edward Island during our Civil War years. This one say on the front "SPEED THE PLOUGH", referencing a harvest and the reverse says "SUCESS TO THE FISHERIES". The Canadians at this point were just establishing a common banking system but still had all the provincial tokens to deal with. Guess this one goes with the Dragon-slayers!
Hope you enjoyed the read!
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Posted 02/22/2018 8:40 pm
