An interesting item I picked up for a Secret Santa gift

[jtryka]

So I am involved in a secret santa exchange on another forum, and my secret santa partner likes turtles, so I looked for something on eBay and picked up the attached token for him since it's the only American issue I could find with a turtle. Then I looked it up and actually found it in the Red Book, so I thought I'd share it with you all before I sent it off to its new home. Let me know what you think and any information you can share on it. Surprisingly it was not expensive at all after 170 years!

[Bruceswar]

That is a nice Hard times token! Sweet coin!

[jesbroken]

Jeff,

Just for fun, you might want to measure the diameter of this token. If it is 29mm then you have an HT32, but if it measures 28.5mm then you have an HT31 which is worth 15 to 20 times more and is an R3 rather than R1.

 

Just for your info,

The tortoise witha safe on its back on the tokens has been said to allude to the slow progress which the experiment(of separating state and bank) made, and the running person_too_unaware_of_social_graces** to Van Buren's rapid growth in popularity--which is doubtful. The withdrawal of public funds from the banks, with other reasons, led to a contraction of the currency and great changes in apparent values, which under the loose methods that had previously obtained, may be said to have been the apparent causes of "Hard Times".

This quote was taken from "Hard Times Tokens 1832-1844" by Russell Rulau.

I am sure your 'Secret Santa Exchaneur' will enjoy this token for a long time.

 

**edited to change jack_ss to donkey to prevent *spoon*

 

[jtryka]

Thanks for the great info Jim, I have no good way to measure the diameter, so I compared it to a half dollar which is 30.6mm, and it seemed to be about 1 or 2 mm short of that, which again tells me nothing! Either way, if it's a rare variety then that'll be just a bonus gift for my Santa buddy!

[TomB]

This is one of the more common Hard Times tokens, but I think it very cool.

[michael]

So I am involved in a secret santa exchange on another forum, and my secret santa partner likes turtles, so I looked for something on eBay and picked up the attached token for him since it's the only American issue I could find with a turtle. Then I looked it up and actually found it in the Red Book, so I thought I'd share it with you all before I sent it off to its new home. Let me know what you think and any information you can share on it. Surprisingly it was not expensive at all after 170 years!

 

superb!!!!!!!! the receiver will be one lucky collector

 

 

[ldhair]

Nice old token.

It's a lot of fun looking up the history behind them.