"War of Northern Aggression" Tokens
By Parry Bragg
When the War of Northern Aggression began in the Spring of 1861, the suspension of Specie payment by the banks, and I feel, the hoarding of silver and gold coinage in the "Hard Times" of the 1830s, caused the citizens to begin hoarding all metal coinage. To overcome this lack of coinage, the United States government, the individual states and some private institutions and individuals came up with a number of alternatives: encased postage containers, fractional currency, payments in "kind" and private tokens.
It is estimated that in the course of the war, that in excess of 8500 different tokens were minted and passed into circulation. There were a number of different metals and amalgams used to produce these tokens, including: gold, silver, tin, copper, brass, copper-nickel, nickel, lead, among others. The most valuable are the gold and silver examples and incidently, all Southern patriotic tokens... few of which exist.
There were a number of different designs used when producing these tokens and many different combinations are found. Many different oddities exist: brockages, clashed dies, over- and double date and inscriptions, etc. It was to the financial benefit of the minters and the original purchasers to have the coins made as they did not come close to costing the face value of the coins, and were usually used in normal commerce. Some Sutlers tokens were only good with certain merchants and in this way the merchant could sell these tokens or use them as change for purchases and the soldiers would move on with the troops and not be able to redeem them.
In the recent past, Civil War tokens could be purchased for reasonable price ranging from $2-10 each, however, every time Ken Burns Civil War program is seen on TV, the demand rises. They can still be found at $5-50 in good to uncirculated condition, and are always a good purchase for all numismatists.
|
|