Hard Times Tokens - Post Your Images

[BROADSTRUCK]

Newp just arrived and it's best struck example of this HTT variety I've ever seen

 

The reverse of these 1841 Bentonian Currency tokens is always weakly struck and never show center veining in the leaves of the wreath.

 

1841 Bentonian Currency Mint Drop, Low-68 / HT-64, R-3.

 

[Hard Times]

Well done Broadie - thaz a great HTT!

 

Best, HT

[BROADSTRUCK]

Well done Broadie - thaz a great HTT!

 

Best, HT

 

Thanx HT

 

Here's another Mint Drop I've never posted...

 

1837 Bentonian Currency Mint Drop, HT-62 / Low-38, R-2.

 

[BROADSTRUCK]

1844 Squire & Sons, NYC New York, U.S. Merchant Token, Miller NY 833 Copper & 835 Brass.

 

 

Although these ship related merchant store cards are considered a U.S. Merchant token, 1844 was still within the hard times era. I've added these to my HTT collection as they are the only UNC examples I've seen and they also possess a strong likeness to their circa 1836 Squire & Merritt predecessor. The HT-318 through HT-325 Squire & Merritt's are excessively scarce as they range between R-3 through R-8 on the rarity scale. Beyond the previous merger of Merritt's name the design of this token has remained the same with the exception of an actual street address number addition on the merchant token design variety. Whereas most all of the circa 1836 tokens seen have either been counter-struck with the numbers "175" or "176".

[Hard Times]

Broadie, Keep up the good work!

 

Best, HT

[BROADSTRUCK]

1837 Haselton & Palmer / A.C. Smith, Dover, New Hampshire, HT-192 / Low-131, Copper, Rulau Rarity-2.

 

Sometimes a token far lower on the rarity scale can be just as tough if not tougher to locate. As the following duel merchant token is much scarcer than its rarity indicates. This is the toughest of the 3 available New Hampshire Hard Times tokens and rarely seen above XF. Lyman Low in 1899 had this rated as “Not So Common” and Garrett who worked directly with Low never owned an example. Virgil Brand even after his nephew continued to work on the collection for 25 years possessed an XF. John Ford who spent 50 years with this series only managed an AU example. Benjamin Wright in his 1901 works on tokens considered this a Rarity-4. NGC in over a decade of grading this series has only graded 3-4 examples, 2 being below AU. Within the last year 2 (possibly the same token twice?) lower grade examples have crossed Ebay, but prior to these I don’t recall having seen any for 5-6 years in daily searches. I had to do some soul searching on this one as it was multiples in cost of what an AU example fetches. Yet in retrospect of what the finest known large cent sells for from that era it was quite affordable.

 

Ex: Lionel Ruddick Collection B&M 1989 lot description = An absolutely outstanding example of this popular Dover, New Hampshire issue. Both obverse and reverse have full, unbroken, and quite spectacular mint luster which creates cartwheels on both sides. In addition if this where not enough both sides are toned in exceptionally lovely shades of iridescent pale green, purple, indigo, rose, gray brown, and golden brown hues. In terms of quality this probably ranks as the finest of all of the Hard Times Tokens collected by Lionel Ruddick and places among the finest known of this issue.

 

 

 

A.C. Smith was a dealer in crockery during the hard times area. Most major cities of this period had a crockery manufacturer, a factory that would mine local clay, shape it, decorate it, and fire it. In these clay pots of varying sizes food and drink were stored, as obviously there were no refrigerators and the ice man had not yet become a regular feature of daily lives.

[Mainecents]

I added a Low 131 via Ebay on 12/6/11. Looks like a decent EF. I too had searched for one a long time, and found it hard to reconcile the R2 rarity grade with the lack of supply. It has special meaning my being a NHrite and having gone to high school in Dover. It's great to learn the details about availability and who has had what and when.

[No+4Me]

Enjoyed reading about the NH tokens, thanks!

 

Here is an HTT acquired from a specialist at Baltimore:

 

[Hard Times]

Let's see them HTT's Mainecents.

 

Nice No+four! Did not see that one in the Stack's auction - get it on the bourse?

 

As always Broadie, keep 'em coming!

 

Best, HT

[BROADSTRUCK]

I added a Low 131 via Ebay on 12/6/11. Looks like a decent EF. I too had searched for one a long time, and found it hard to reconcile the R2 rarity grade with the lack of supply. It has special meaning my being a NHrite and having gone to high school in Dover. It's great to learn the details about availability and who has had what and when.

 

Mainecents, I just mentioned a few well known widely recognized collections, but will research to compile a full list of Low-131's next week.

[BROADSTRUCK]

Enjoyed reading about the NH tokens, thanks!

 

Here is an HTT acquired from a specialist at Baltimore:

 

No+4Me, Your pics of your new Low-19/HT-33 are truly spectacular

 

I had a great time browsing the floor for exonumia with you at Baltimore! (thumbs u

[BROADSTRUCK]

Let's see them HTT's Mainecents.

 

Nice No+four! Did not see that one in the Stack's auction - get it on the bourse?

 

As always Broadie, keep 'em coming!

 

Best, HT

 

Thanks HT, There was only one 5 HTT NGC lot in the Baltimore S/B auction which had no images posted. I wasn't heading to the show a day early just to view this one lot and wasn't going to bid blindly based on NGC grading. Stack/Bowers however allowed me to view them on Saturday after the auction. Only 1 token was really nice as the other 4 where really just ho-hum below average as this was a mostly a wholesale group.

[No+4Me]

Enjoyed reading about the NH tokens, thanks!

 

Here is an HTT acquired from a specialist at Baltimore:

 

No+4Me, Your pics of your new Low-19/HT-33 are truly spectacular

 

I had a great time browsing the floor for exonumia with you at Baltimore! (thumbs u

 

Thanks Broadstruck, You have been a great help to me in acquiring some very nice HTT's, and thanks to you I was able to see some great examples in Baltimore, and add to my Monitor set as well!

[BROADSTRUCK]

Thanks Broadstruck, You have been a great help to me in acquiring some very nice HTT's, and thanks to you I was able to see some great examples in Baltimore, and add to my Monitor set as well!

 

Your welcome No+4Me... Yeah that was a neat sit down session being allowed to leisurely view all those lower Low numbered tougher HTT's. Yet what a bummer none where available for purchase

[No+4Me]

Here's a May 10th, uniformly brown and slightly circulated:

(I think it's HT 67)

 

[BROADSTRUCK]

(I think it's HT 67)

 

Yes a 1837 May Tenth "Substitute For Shin Plasters" HT-67 / Low-48.

[No+4Me]

Thanks for confirming that!

[Hard Times]

Here is my HT-181, it is very deep dark chocolate and I have the brightness amped so it can be seen, full of luster, alot of token for a 62. Shot a couple years ago, I need to reshoot it for a better image but nevertheless here it is.

 

Best, HT

 

[BROADSTRUCK]

Here is my HT-181, it is very deep dark chocolate and I have the brightness amped so it can be seen, full of luster, alot of token for a 62. Shot a couple years ago, I need to reshoot it for a better image but nevertheless here it is.

 

Nice HT... Is that the ex YRRC example

[No+4Me]

That HT 181 is one of my favorite designs, perfect depiction of a p.o.'d, scrofulous old boar.

[BROADSTRUCK]

1837 Shin Plasters HT-56 / Low-45

 

Another Baltimore newp which it's far redder then the three top pop RB examples I've had a chance to view in hand over the years. The reverse is mostly always weakly struck on this variety Shin Plaster as it was stuck with very tired HT-48 / Low-33 dies.

 

[Hard Times]

Here is my HT-181, it is very deep dark chocolate and I have the brightness amped so it can be seen, full of luster, alot of token for a 62. Shot a couple years ago, I need to reshoot it for a better image but nevertheless here it is.

 

Nice HT... Is that the ex YRRC example

 

Yes, yes it is, good eye Broadie!

 

Very nice HT-56!

[BROADSTRUCK]

Hard Times Token potential bidder warning:

 

NGC for the last couple months has been wrongly designating HT-19 Rarity-5 Daniel Webster Tokens.

 

All so far are common Rarity-1 HT-20/HT-62's being called Rarity-5 HT-19/Low-61's.

 

Beyond the lightning bolt on the reverse the HT-19 and HT-20 Webster reverse ship designs look nothing alike and should be very easily identified at a glance.

 

These three examples below are available for bidding at Ebay and Heritage... Both sellers have been contacted by me in regard to the wrong slab insert designation. Liberty Coins removed the auction, but the other 2 are still available for bidding at Heritage. Heritage has not added anything so far mentioning the designation error to either auction description.

 

I had seen a 4th example AU Details Cleaned on EBay about 1-2 months ago but thought it was just a fluke and didn't retain an image. Seller removed the auction after being contacted.

 

If your just going by the slab insert designation you could easily be paying upwards of $1500 for a $200 token.

 

[No+4Me]

Good job, Broadstruck! For me, the easy tell on the reverse is that the stars before and after "Van Buren" are tiny on the HT20 and large on the HT19, do you agree?

[BROADSTRUCK]

Good job, Broadstruck! For me, the easy tell on the reverse is that the stars before and after "Van Buren" are tiny on the HT20 and large on the HT19, do you agree?

 

Thanks No+4Me, Yes the stars on a true HT-19/Low-61 (As seen in the top image below) are huge compared to commoner seen HT-20/Low-62 (As seen in the lower image below)

 

The NGC pop on HT-19's prior to 2012 was 9 in all grades, which took a decade to achieve.

 

The NGC pop on HT-19's currently in just a couple months is up to 17 in all grades.

 

 

[No+4Me]

I also notice that the ocean waves on the HT-19 rev. look more like curly fries than they do on the HT-20. Ummmm. Fries. Gotta go...

[No+4Me]

NewP: HT-171, Willard's brushes and perfumes.

 

Thanks to brother Broadstruck for pointing me to this choice uncirculated example. No marks to speak of, nice maple-sugar brown, soft cartwheel luster.

 

[Hard Times]

Nice NoFour! Broadie, thanks for the key info on the 'HT-19', take home message, always verify attributions!

 

Best, HT

[BROADSTRUCK]

NewP: HT-171, Willard's brushes and perfumes. Thanks to brother Broadstruck for pointing me to this choice uncirculated example. No marks to speak of, nice maple-sugar brown, soft cartwheel luster.

 

Looks sweet and I'm glad it showed up bettering the sellers pics... That's a very tough token to find attractive unless a major collection comes to market.

[BROADSTRUCK]

Broadie, thanks for the key info on the 'HT-19', take home message, always verify attributions! Best, HT

 

Yes you need to know what your buying... Yet misattributed can at times work in your favor as I've purchased a few tougher examples that way. I used to keep a journal of all the wrong cert numbers I saw on the web or shows but this turned into quite a chore. At the last Baltimore show I got excited as I reached for two HT-31/Low-17's in both AU58 and MS62. This early Illustrious Predecessor variety is tough above VF and I was quickly disappointed as both where HT-34/Low-20's. I over the course of 4 days on the bourse floor corrected about a dozen misattributed encapsulated exonumia items for dealers, for HTT's most being other HT-31 to HT-34 Illustrious Predecessors and HT-56 to HT-67 Shin Plaster varieties.