Not One Cent 1863 Need Help

Thank you
Can you explain Mule to me, I understand what it says on page 144 but could a little more details is it a good thing ?
Thanks
Alan

mrwhatisit
Thank you

Hi Alan .... I started collecting CWT's in the early 1960's and still love 'em.

Your token is not a mule. Die sinkers, engravers, paired many combinations of obverse and reverse dies. This is a fairly common variety. That said, your piece look to be XF-45 or slightly better. I'd venture a retail value of around $30-$35 for this well preserved token.

There are two basic categories of CWT's, patriotics and store cards. Since your token has no specific advertising, it's a patriotic. Some patriotic tokens have general advertising, lacking a name, town or state, and these patriotics are referred to as half-cards.

If you go to the ebay website, you can search "197/380" and usually find a few attributed specimens for sale. Also if you visit the Civil War Token Society website, you can find pictured listings of the patriotic dies on your token. If you want to build a CWT collection, do consider joining this fine organization!

Many die sinkers signed their work. There are many ways to collect CWT's. Some collectors look for the work of particular die sinkers, while others look for particular dies like pictorials, animals, weapons, famous CW people, etc.

IMHO, your best CWT bargains can be had at coin shows. Exonumia dealers are almost always happy to share their knowledge and offer sage advice.