1847 US Brothel Token 1 1

[Bassfisherman]

 

 

 

Hello, I metal detect as a hobby and the other day i found an altered 1847 US large cent.  It is a Brothel token.  In place of ONE CENT it says ONE .  I understand what they were used for but am wondering what the value of this may be?

[Oldhoopster]

It's not a brothel token. Just a coin that someone decided to damage.  Collect long enough and you'll come across US and Canadian large cents type of engraving.

A coin like this is considered to be damaged and the vulgar engraving reduces any collector value significantly.  In addition, it has environmental damage from being buried.  It's an interesting metal detecting find, but any collector interest is significantly reduced.  Sorry

[Joydeep]

Oh man.....perhaps the OP is aiming for puerile comedy.....if unintentional (one has to be unfamiliar with US coinage), it must be due to the wear on the coin that the OP and possibly others might mistake the E in CENT as a U.

Edited April 3, 2022 by Joydeep

[tj96]

I doubt if someone intentionally took the time to engrave it.  It came out of the ground, it's called environmental damage.  What you're seeing is called Pareidolia.  Still a great metal detecting find!  👍🏻

[DWLange]

That particular alteration seems to have occupied the idle moments of many a young man at a time when large cents still circulated. I've seen several examples, and all were of the Braided Hair type.

[Oldhoopster]

On 4/4/2022 at 5:25 PM, DWLange said:

That particular alteration seems to have occupied the idle moments of many a young man at a time when large cents still circulated. I've seen several examples, and all were of the Braided Hair type.

When I was putting together a circulated set of Canadian Large cents, it wasn't uncommon to see a decent coin ruined like this.  Most seemed to be on the Victorian coins and were crudely done ( no pun intended)

[Conder101]

I've seen them on large cnets, Flying eagles, Indian heads and even a couple of wheat cents.  I also have one done on an AU 1835 half cent.  Somewhere in one of my computers I have an image of a near Mint state 1854 large cent in a PCGS slab.  It hd been slabbed in error, the serial number showed the code for an altered coin.  It was supposed to have been bodybagged, not slabbed.