Can anyone help me with this 1863 Indian Head penny.
- Thread starter Truth
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SusanMN
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Here is a great website to research your token. I found a civil war token a few months ago and found this site very useful in learning about the token and its rarity.
Civil War Token collecting by Type ?
Civil War Token collecting by Type ?
Professor of Engineering
Gold Member
Cool find! 
1637
Bronze Member
love that token,great find.
brad
brad
BigWaveDave
Gold Member
I know a guy in my local coin club who collects them....
Poor guy gets all jacked up and WAY over pays for them....usually $30-40 coins, he buys for $100.... just about every time. The sellers love him...but he's all smiles, can't knock him for that I guess.
Great piece you got there.....
Poor guy gets all jacked up and WAY over pays for them....usually $30-40 coins, he buys for $100.... just about every time. The sellers love him...but he's all smiles, can't knock him for that I guess.
Great piece you got there.....
Xraywolf
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Trade token, hard to believe but it was perfectly legal and very common for businesses to do this back in the day.
I found one from 1864 year before last, made my week.
I too thought it was an IHP at first and was very happy with that, after cleaning it off I found out what it really was and doubled my pleasure.
I found one from 1864 year before last, made my week.
I too thought it was an IHP at first and was very happy with that, after cleaning it off I found out what it really was and doubled my pleasure.
Honest Samuel
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Token looks to be in great shape. Good for you.
Deft Tones
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I wonder how many got passed as real U.S. currency back in those days. Pretty cool token. 
idahotokens
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DT--
Actually almost all of the series known as Civil War Tokens did. The prime reason they exist is that in the period just before and during the Civil War, coins were hoarded and very few were left in circulation. Commerce suffered because there wasn't a way to make change for purchases. So the solution was for many merchants to have private tokens made, and they were used in place of the cent coins. Two major categories of Civil War Tokens exist. Store Cards like the one pictured in this thread have the name of the merchant at whose shop the token could be redeemed at the end of the emergency, and Patriotic tokens which were not specific to a particular merchant. All of them were somewhat like our current money - little or no intrinsic value like silver or gold, but accepted as one cent in most businesses. Of course, they could not be used to buy postage stamps from the government, but most other places took them and passed them on in turn.
John in the Great 208
Actually almost all of the series known as Civil War Tokens did. The prime reason they exist is that in the period just before and during the Civil War, coins were hoarded and very few were left in circulation. Commerce suffered because there wasn't a way to make change for purchases. So the solution was for many merchants to have private tokens made, and they were used in place of the cent coins. Two major categories of Civil War Tokens exist. Store Cards like the one pictured in this thread have the name of the merchant at whose shop the token could be redeemed at the end of the emergency, and Patriotic tokens which were not specific to a particular merchant. All of them were somewhat like our current money - little or no intrinsic value like silver or gold, but accepted as one cent in most businesses. Of course, they could not be used to buy postage stamps from the government, but most other places took them and passed them on in turn.
John in the Great 208
I wonder how many got passed as real U.S. currency back in those days. Pretty cool token.
Old Bookaroo
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it - The US Government tried different things to solve the coin shortage. They encased postage stamps in mica - that didn't go over well. They issued fractional currency - bills denominated as coins. I have a 10 cent bill that was apparently sent home with the news that a (collateral) ancestor was killed during the Civil War at Corinth. It's in horrible condition. You can well imagine how long paper "coins" lasted.
Good luck to all,
The Old Bookaroo
Good luck to all,
The Old Bookaroo
Carolina Tom
Gold Member
That's a sweet token!
Congrats on that find my man. Better than an IHC.
Congrats on that find my man. Better than an IHC.
DeepseekerADS
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Interesting background information here Idahotokens.
Seems I remember that some stores in rural America in the 1950's accepted postage stamps in trade.
Seems I remember that some stores in rural America in the 1950's accepted postage stamps in trade.
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