1863 Civil War Token Sold By Wagners Dinning Hall, Columbus, Ohio

crazyjarhead · Oct 1, 2009

Good evening everyone. I decided try my luck at new hunting spot that I was given permission to hunt on Saturday while hunting the old church lot in Woodstock, Ohio. The house was owned by Mrs. Fairchild and built in 1852, the owner tells me. It has a large back yard but plenty of bushes growing everywhere. She is divorced and she was the one who asked me to hunt her place. Needless to say I accepted.
My maps are from 1874. You can tell by the map how big the lot is. I'll be working this for a while

I wasn't in the back yard more than 30 minutes and got a dime/penny signal on my Ace. I thought just modern junk at barely 4 inches. When I dug the plug and pulled out the coin I thought it was some kind of token. I resembles a coin, and it is a coin used during the CW because of the shortage of coins during the war. Pretty thing flanked by 13 stars. I don't know who the person is on the front??Make sure you read the links so you know what it is. Very interesting published in 1998. There is only approx. 802- 2789 are known to survive.

I am happy because it is a piece of CW history that I didn't know existed. What a cool looking coin. On top of that I found 7 wheat's 1919 being the oldest and 1935 being the newest. I Also found the face of an old lock. Man when I saw that US staring me in the face I thought, OMG CW belt plate. I almost fell over running to grab my camera

This place is trash free and is every bit as good as the J.A. McDonald house I hunted for 15 months. I am really excited about this place and know there is some more goodies lurking. However, I have to make a run to California Friday and won't be back for a few weeks. Enjoy the pics and have a good one. Hope to find more when I get back. Ron S.

READ THE LINKS BELOW
http://home.roadrunner.com/~tebben/COLUMBUSCWT/wagner.html

http://home.roadrunner.com/~tebben/COLUMBUSCWT/wagner.html

http://home.roadrunner.com/~tebben/COLUMBUSCWT/overviewofcwt.html

allen · Oct 1, 2009

Re: Found A Rare Civil War Coin Sold By Wagners Dinning Hall, Columbus, Ohio

all i can say is WOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :thumbsup:

ModernMiner · Oct 1, 2009

Re: Found A Rare 1863 Civil War Token Sold By Wagners Dinning Hall, Columbus, Ohio

Ron,
That CW era token is unbelievable!!! What a fantastic relic to find. :thumbsup:

That just goes to show you, you never know what strange and unusual find is lurking around the corner next. Way to go & congrats on getting another super spot to hunt.
Can you please pick my wife up a box of See's candy when you are out in Calif.?

Have a safe trip,
Doug

crazyjarhead · Oct 1, 2009

Re: Found A Rare 1863 Civil War Token Sold By Wagners Dinning Hall, Columbus, Ohio

ModernMiner said:
Ron,
That CW era token is unbelievable!!! What a fantastic relic to find. That just goes to show you, you never know what strange and unusual find is lurking around the corner next. Way to go & congrats on getting another super spot to hunt.
Can you please pick my wife up a box of See's candy when you are out in Calif.?
Have a safe trip,
Doug

Thanks Doug. They actually sell SEE's candy here in Dublin, Ohio Mall now. Good stuff

briankb70 · Oct 1, 2009

Re: Found A Rare 1863 Civil War Coin Sold By Wagners Dinning Hall, Columbus, Ohio

nice story and pictures
that token is unbelievable!!!!!!

crazyjarhead · Oct 1, 2009

Re: Found A Rare 1863 Civil War Coin Sold By Wagners Dinning Hall, Columbus, Ohio

briankb70 said:
nice story and pictures
that token is unbelievable!!!!!!

I guess you can really call it a coin. It was real money used during the CW because of the shortage of UC currency. However, the article calls it a token

joecoin · Oct 1, 2009

Re: Found A Rare 1863 Civil War Coin Sold By Wagners Dinning Hall, Columbus, Ohio

Coins are issued by a government mint, tokens can be issued by anyone. (That's the quick and easy explanation). Notice there is no value on the token. During shortages of hard currency, merchants would have these made so they could transact business, most people accepted them probably jsut because they were widely accepted.

goldencoin · Oct 1, 2009

Re: Found A Rare 1863 Civil War Coin Sold By Wagners Dinning Hall, Columbus, Ohio

Nice coin, try not to rub them...it will scratch up the face

HH
-GC

LabradorBob (Missouri) · Oct 1, 2009

Re: Found A Rare 1863 Civil War Coin Sold By Wagners Dinning Hall, Columbus, Ohio

Congrats-Research pays off

PBK · Oct 1, 2009

Re: Found A Rare 1863 Civil War Coin Sold By Wagners Dinning Hall, Columbus, Ohi

Great Civil War store card! :icon_thumright:

There are six different varieties of Wagner's Dining Hall tokens. This one, depicting Mercury, is listed in Fuld's Civil War Store Cards as #OH 2001-2a and is rated R5 (75-200 known). The most recent edition of The Civil War Token Collector's Guide by Kanzinger values it at $22 in Fine to Very Fine condition.

Ammo Dog · Oct 1, 2009

Re: Found A Rare 1863 Civil War Coin Sold By Wagners Dinning Hall, Columbus, Ohio

Nice

Goes4ever · Oct 1, 2009

Re: Found A Rare 1863 Civil War Coin Sold By Wagners Dinning Hall, Columbus, Ohio

sweet find Ron!

crazyjarhead · Oct 1, 2009

Re: Found A Rare 1863 Civil War Coin Sold By Wagners Dinning Hall, Columbus, Ohi

PBK said:
Great Civil War store card!

There are six different varieties of Wagner's Dining Hall tokens. This one, depicting Mercury, is listed in Fuld's Civil War Store Cards as #OH 2001-2a and is rated R5 (75-200 known). The most recent edition of The Civil War Token Collector's Guide by Kanzinger values it at $22 in Fine to Very Fine condition.

YIPPEEEEEEEEE. R-5 is pretty decent..........I'll settle for that. Love that CW history

PBK said:
Great Civil War store card!

There are six different varieties of Wagner's Dining Hall tokens. This one, depicting Mercury, is listed in Fuld's Civil War Store Cards as #OH 2001-2a and is rated R5 (75-200 known). The most recent edition of The Civil War Token Collector's Guide by Kanzinger values it at $22 in Fine to Very Fine condition.

crazyjarhead · Oct 1, 2009

Re: Rare (R-5) 1863 Civil War Token Sold By Wagners Dinning Hall, Columbus, Ohio

Mackaydon said:
Some history that surrounds your great find:

C.A. Wagner

When the federal government moved the Columbus post office to new quarters in 1862, merchant Charles A. Wagner jumped at the chance to expand into a new line of business.

His popular store, which featured everything from oysters to flags and fireworks, had operated at the southwest corner of State Street and Pearl Alley for years.

On Feb. 2, 1863, Wagner jumped the alley to open a dining hall in the quarters vacated by the post office. The site is now occupied by the Ohio Theatre's gift shop.

The restaurant was a cut above the city's other dining halls. Several papers - papers that Wagner advertised in extensively - heralded its opening.

The Columbus Gazette called it "one of the neatest and most complete establishments of the kind in the western country."

The Capital City Fact reported, "The establishment looked fine, everything about it neat, clean and well arranged, and the brilliancy of the rich chandeliers added much to the grandeur of the scene."

An upstanding citizen, Wagner footed the $91 bill for putting on the city's July 4 fireworks in 1863, volunteered to help guard Confederate prisoners at Camp Chase and posted a reward to bring hooligans to justice who had rioted at the Athenaeum theater.

Wagner's politics dogged him, though. He was a Democrat.

In August, 1863, a letter to the editor from an unnamed but supposedly highly placed military official accused Wagner of selling Confederate flags.

Wagner denied the charge in a letter to the editor of The Ohio Statesman, a moderate Democrat newspaper.

"It is well known that I am a Democrat," Wagner wrote. "I have never attempted to disguise this and my loyalty is not to be questioned by any such fellows who attempted to stab me in the back."

The letter apparently worked.

A few days later the Douglas Rangers selected his restaurant as the site of a military ball and federal hospital officials publicly thanked Wagner for his donation of peaches to ill soldiers.

That winter, the city's newspapers praised Captain Charley, as he was called, for his foresight. Oysters were scarce in the markets, but Wagner always had a good supply.

Wagner ordered more than he needed in the fall and fattened them up until they were needed.

Wagner's dining hall moved in 1869 when the city decided to build a new city hall on the site.

W.K. Lanphear struck Wagner's tokens. An estimated 802 to 2,789 survive. Six obverse dies were used to strike the plain-edge copper tokens.

Don.......

Source: http://home.roadrunner.com/~tebben/COLUMBUSCWT/wagner.html

Thanks Don. I posted the link that has the same info. Did you type all of that in?? I hope not. Thanks alot for your help. Much appreciated

Mackaydon · Oct 1, 2009

Re: Rare (R-5) 1863 Civil War Token Sold By Wagners Dinning Hall, Columbus, Ohio

Ron:
My bad and my oversight.
I deleted my entry to save some space.
Still a great find!!
Don....

sscindercoop · Oct 1, 2009

Re: Rare (R-5) 1863 Civil War Token Sold By Wagners Dinning Hall, Columbus, Ohio

Thats an amazing token congrats :icon_thumleft:

VERMONTPACKRAT · Oct 1, 2009

Re: Rare (R-5) 1863 Civil War Token Sold By Wagners Dinning Hall, Columbus, Ohio

Very interesting find !!! I dont find many tokens where I hunt.

I will be watching for more posts of all the booty that you will find at this spot !

VPR

thrillathahunt · Oct 1, 2009

Re: Rare (R-5) 1863 Civil War Token Sold By Wagners Dinning Hall, Columbus, Ohio

Ron, do you want to sell it?

Rick

crazyjarhead · Oct 1, 2009

Re: Rare (R-5) 1863 Civil War Token Sold By Wagners Dinning Hall, Columbus, Ohio

VERMONTPACKRAT said:
Very interesting find !!! I dont find many tokens where I hunt.

I will be watching for more posts of all the booty that you will find at this spot !

VPR

Thanks VPR. Nice civil war era home. Hope I can pull some more good ones from it before winter