Hard Times Tokens 1832-1844 As Illustrated By The Garrett Collection.

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The series known as Hard Times tokens comprises tokens issued privately in the United States from 1832 to 1844. The pieces, mostly made of copper and he size of a United States cent of the period, can be divided into several categories:

1. Pieces referring to the United States Bank and the controversy surrounding it.
2. Those with inscriptions relating to political and satirical situations of the era.
3. Tokens with inscriptions and designs closely resembling the regular cent coinage but with some differences in order to evade the counterfeiting laws.
4. Examples bearing the advertisements of private merchants; "store cards".
5. Die mulings, combinations with the obverses or reverses of any of the preceding.

Hard times tokens were first described in 1858 by Charles I. Bushnell in An Arrangement of the Tradesmen's Cards, Political Tokens, Election Medals, etc. Bushnell, who died in 1880, began collecting around 1850. During the first decade of his collecting activity ie engaged in considerable research concerning colonial coins, Hard Times tokens, and related items. Tokens, medals, and numismatic pieces with a story behind them specially intrigued Bushnell. While he collected regular United States Mint issues, these were secondary in importance, as evidenced by the preface to the June W-24, 1882, auction catalogue of the Bushnell Collection prepared by S. H. and Henry Chapman:

Mr. Bushnell told me he never spared expense in improving their condition, that no matter how fine a specimen was, if he could improve it he did so; he also told us that he cared but little for the dates of the United States Mint silver issues, and the series of which he never completed, his attention being devoted to the coins and medals relating to the history of this country.

Bushnell visited several original issuers and manufacturers of Hard Times tokens and was able to obtain undistributed pieces as well as have some special strikings made to his order.

In the April 1870 issue of The American Journal of Numismatics J. N. T. Levick enumerated and described 56 different issues. In 1886 Lyman H. Low produced a 16-page pamphlet describing additional pieces. Low became extremely interested in the field. He wrote extensively and traveled widely to interview those once associated with the issuance of the tokens. He sought relatives of merchants who once advertised on the pieces. From early newspapers, commercial journals, and other sources additional information was obtained. The result was his definitive work, Hard Times Tokens, of which the 1900 revised second edition remains today the standard work on the series. William F. Dunham, a Chicago numismatist whose magnificent collection was sold at auction by B. Max Mehl in 1941, issued an easy finding list, or cross-index of the series. In the 1950s

Charles V. Kappen, a California devotee of tokens and medals, reissued Low's earlier work and combined it with Dunham's information, plates made from photographs (Low's illustrations were line drawings), and furnished a table of prices and rarity information.
The Hard Times tokens with political motifs center on issues of the Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren administrations.

Andrew Jackson, military hero of the Battle of New Orleans in 1815, defeated John Quincy Adams' reelection bid to gain the presidency in 1828. Jackson, not an educated man, was the subject of much ridicule. His "Roman firmness" was mentioned on tokens as was his statement made at a Democratic banquet in April 1830, "our federal union must be preserved," or, as some have remembered it, "our federal union, it must and shall be preserved." In 1832 Harvard College conferred upon Jackson an honorary Doctorate of Laws. This LLD degree caused much amusement. As Lyman H. Low has stated, "the judicious grieved, and his enemies rejoiced at the absurdity of the title; and it was not long before the honorary degree appeared upon a token which ridiculed him."



One of the most widely circulated tokens of the era depicts Jackson emerging from a chest of money .holding a purse in one hand and a sword in the other. This was a reference to the fear, subsequently reported in the Albany Argus on October 1, 1842, that the liberties of the Union were threatened "by Union of the purse and sword in the same hands," a reference in this instance to the following administration of Martin Van Buren. Presidential power over the nation's money and military has been the subject for concern at intermittent intervals since that time. In 1832 Jackson campaigned against Henry Clay. The president's stand against the Bank of the United States struck a popular chord and resulted in an overwhelming victory for him. In order to lessen the effectiveness of the Bank of the United States, which was chartered to continue until 1836, Jackson removed federal deposits from it and placed them in state banks. This and his July 1836 specie circular were among the causes of the nationwide financial panic of 1837 and the consequent depression.

In May 1835 Martin Van Buren, Jackson's vice president, was nominated for the presidency. His platform included opposition to rechartering the Bank of the United States. During his administration the main problem concerned the nation's depressed economy. Van Buren urged that an independent Treasury be established apart from the United States government and that the Treasury surplus was not to be distributed to the states. His stand on this and other issues alienated many conservative Democrats and at the same time caused him to be denounced by the Whigs. Seeking re-election, he was defeated overwhelmingly by William Henry Harrison in the 1840 election campaign.
In his inaugural address Van Buren declared, "I follow in the steps of my illustrious predecessor," a reference to Jackson. Caricaturists of the era represented the newly-elected president carefully stepping in the footprints of a jackass, a sentiment which extended itself to certain tokens of the time.

The Panic of 1837 resulted in many business failures and a hoarding of coins in circulation. This period was generally referred to as the era of "Hard Times," the title of which was later adopted to include tokens of the wider 1833-1844 period.

To fill the need for small change in circulation, a wide variety of copper tokens appeared in 1837. One issue bore the legend SUBSTITUTE FOR SHINPLASTERS, a reference to the flood of often-worthless paper money issues distributed by banks, merchants, and others, which were called "shin-plasters" and which had backing no stronger than the financial credit of the issuer, which was sometimes nil.

Important among the issuers of Hard Times tokens was the firm of J. M. L. & W. H. Scovill, of Waterbury, Connecticut. This firm and its successors have a rich numismatic history. In 1862 Scovill produced encased postage stamps. Later the firm supplied planchets to the United States Mint for the production of nickel alloy coins.

Scovill's beginnings can be traced to 1802 when. Abel Porter & Co. produced buttons. The company was composed of Silas Grilley (who earlier had made pewter buttons in Waterbury), Abel Porter, Levi Porter, and Daniel Clark. Brass was formed into ingots: on the premises, transported to nearby Bradleyville, where it was rolled into strips, and then returned to Waterbury for cutting and stamping. In 1806 Levi Porter withdrew from the firm in order to enter the dock business with Eli Terry, a pioneer Connecticut manufacturer. David Hayden, a manufacturer of brass buttons in Attleboro, Massachusetts, came to Waterbury and became a partner. A water-powered mill was constructed on the site later occupied by Scovill. In 1809 Grilley left the business, and in 1811 the firm was dissolved. A new company was founded by Frederick Leavenworth, David Hayden, and James M. L. Scovill under the name of Leavenworth, Hayden & Scovill. The former business of Porter was acquired. In 1827 Hayden and Leavenworth left the firm, and W. H. Scovill, J. M. L.' s younger brother, acquired a half in-terest in the business. The title was changed to J. M. L. & W. H. Scovill.



On March 31, 1830, the main building was destroyed by fire and all of the machinery was lost Restoration began immediately and it was completed by the following July. In 1836 John Buckingham, then brother-in-law, was admitted as a partner in a separate enterprise which manufactured hinges under the name of Scovill & Buckingham": In 1840 the son of John Buckingham (Scovill M. Buckingham) and his son-in' law, Abram Ives, were taken into the business 0 J. M. L. & W. H. Scovill. For the next ten years but tons were manufactured under the name of Scovill & Co., while the original J. M. L. & W. H. Scovill name was used in the manufacture of rolled brass and brass wire.

Shortly after their invention in 1839, daguerrotype plates were introduced into the United States. By 1842 a strong demand was created for the devices, which were composed of silver-plated copper with a mirrorlike surface. Scovill entered the field and soon became the largest manufacturer of these in the United States. Cameras and other photographic goods were soon added to the line. Branches were established in New York, Boston, and Chicago.

In 1850 the various Scovill enterprises were combined under a stock company which adopted the name of Scovill Manufacturing Company. The firm continued its growth and entered many new product lines. By 1912 the company had a capitalization of $5 million and employed 4,000 people.

Among the Hard Times tokens made by Scovill are those listed by Low as numbers 31-40, 45-48, 58-65, 67, 68, 95-97, 107, 110, 111, 115, 122, 123, 127, 130, 133-136, 138, 153, and 154.

In Attleboro, Massachusetts, the firm of H. M. & E.I. Richards, controlled by two cousins, Henry Manning Richards and E. Ira Richards, produced a wide variety of Hard Times tokens. Low traces the beginning of the firm to Ira's father, also named Ira Richards, who began manufacturing jewelry in Attleboro about 1815. The two cousins were employed by him until 1830, when the firm of H. M. & E. I. Richards was formed. The company later dissolved, and in 1837 H. M. Richards went to Philadelphia where he continued the manufacture of jewelry articles.

In Belleville, New Jersey, John Gibbs, who on a token known as Low 150, described himself as MANUFACTURER OF MEDALS AND TOKENS, was a senior partner of Gibbs, Gardner & Co. His business was located in a building on the same premises as Stevens, Thomas & Fuller, a company which produced dies and struck minor coins for Brazil, Liberia, Santo Domingo, and various private merchants. Stevens had earlier obtained his training in Birmingham, England.

The coining facility became known as the Belleville Mint. Many different varieties associated with the Hard Times token series, including some bearing the evasive legend NOT ONE CENT, were made there. In addition, similarly-sized copper coins known as bouquet sous were made for circulation in Canada. The floral bouquet design was used in one instance as a reverse for a token issued by William Gibbs, father of John Gibbs, whoproclaimed himself to be an AGRICULTURIST.

Another piece issued at Belleville bears the same reverse as the Canadian bouquet sou. The obverse has the inscription T. DUSEAMAN BUTCHER, BELLEVILLE.

T. D. Seaman operated a hotel in Belleville around 1837 and also apparently engaged in trade as a butcher. He was probably the same as one Tobias D. Seaman who was proprietor of the Mechanics' Hotel, 188 Broad Street, Newark, New Jersey, from about 1845 to 1850, and, following that, in 1851 the South Ward Hotel at 398 Broadway, also in Newark. It is probable that the token known as Low 148 and bearing the DUSEAMAN legend was in reality issued for Seaman. The workmanship is very crude, and for this reason the piece was probably rejected by Seaman when he first saw it. A die cutter at the Belleville Mint simply added an extraneous U in place of the period between the D and SEAMAN, creating the Duseaman name. After the U was added the piece was suitable for general purposes and could be sold to anyone in quantity. As such pieces sold for less than a cent but circulated at the value of one cent each, a profit was to be made.

Hard Times tokens designated as Low 72 and 73 were issued by Francis L. Brigham, who advertised as a DEALER IN DRY GOODS BY WHOLESALE AND RETAIL at Cheapside, New Bedford, Massachusetts. Low relates that Cheapside was the designation given in the 1830s to a portion of Pleasant Street which formed the east side of what was then called Market Square. It was bordered by a long one-story building which is shown on the 1833 tokens issued by Brigham. A few years later, in 1836, Brigham was listed in the New Bedford directory as a dentist with an office at 24 Purchase Street. Brigham died at the age of 42 on September 18, 1845.

Isaac B. Bucklin, of Troy, New York, issued a number of tokens, many of which advertised his "Bucklin's Bookkeeping Simplified," 1834. According to the token, this system SHOWS ONE VIEW THE EXACT STATE OF YOUR BUSINESS. The reverse of the piece described as Low 77 states: BUCKLINS INTEREST TABLES. 100 DOLLARS FOR DETECTING AN ERROR OF 1 CENT. SHOWS THE INTEREST AT A GLANCE OF ANY SUM FOR ANY TIME AT 6 AND 7 PER CENT. PRICED FROM 25 CENTS TO 2 DOLLARS. Bucklin, a Troy school teacher, lived in nearby West Troy. He furnished special instruction in bookkeeping and also engaged in printing and selling interest tables and various accounting devices. From 1839 on he was a stove dealer at 221 River Street in Troy.

The token described as Low 81 was issued by the Howell Works Garden in 1834. This was apparently a resort or social area connected with the Howell Works, manufacturers located in Howell, Monmouth County, New Jersey. Founded as Monmouth Furnace in 1814, the enterprise was acquired by James P. Allaire around 1822. The name was changed to the Howell Works, under which designation business was conducted for about a quarter century. At one time the enterprise issued paper money in such denominations as 6 ¼, 12 1/2c, $3, $5, and $10.

The Merchants' Exchange located in Wall Street, New York, furnished the motif for one of the most widely-circulated tokens of the era. The obverse depicts the building with the legend MERCHANTS EXCHANGE WALL ST. N. YORK BUILT 1827 BURNT 1835. The structure was begun in 1825 and was first occupied on May 1, 1827. On December 16, 1835 it was destroyed by fire.

Walsh's General Store in Lansingburgh, Rensselaer County, New York, issued the token described as Low 99. This 1835 issue shows on the reverse a plow with the legend SPEED THE PLOUGH, IT FEEDS ALL, a reference to the interest in horticulture and farming shown by the issuer, Alexander Walsh. He conducted a store for more than 30 years. Locally his enterprise was known as Walsh's Museum due to the interesting and unusual variety of stock it contained.

Walsh achieved prominence in his own area. In 1825 he was a guest of Governor DeWitt Clinton and accompanied him on the first boat in ceremonies observing the opening of the Erie Canal. He was a recipient of a special silver medal struck to commemorate the event. In 1839 Henry Clay was a guest at Walsh's home in Lansingburgh. In 1846 he retired from business. On August 4, 1849 he died. Several varieties of tokens, struck by H. M. & E. I. Richards, were issued by Walsh. Those with the aforementioned design were known as "Plough pennies" in the upstate New York area, where apparently they achieved an extensive circulation.

One of the most plentiful of all Hard Times tokens is the variety designated as Low 120. The obverse illustrates a standing eagle with a serpent in its talons, with the date 1837 below. The reverse bears the in scription ONE CENT in the center with FEUCHTWANGER'S COMPOSITION surrounding. The issue is of small diameter, 18.5 millimeters.

and is struck in a light-colored material known as German silver. Numerous minor die variations are known to exist.

These pieces and certain related issues of the three cent denomination were the product of Dr. Lewis Feuchtwanger. Born at Furth, near Nuremberg, Germany in 1807, he went on to attend school and graduate from Heidelberg University. Duelling was a special interest, and he was said to have won each of the nine duels in which he fought. Feuchtwanger came to America sometime in 1831 or earlier, for in that year he wrote for Silliman's American Journal of Science and Arts an article about arsenic. In the same year Feuchtwanger's composition metals, to which the name German silver was given, were mentioned in print, but it is possible that it was first compounded at an earlier time.
In 1831 he was in the drug business at 377 Broadway, New York, where he remained until 1836. In 1835 and 1836 he was awarded silver medals by the American Institute for his metallic composition and for his exhibit of over 100 different articles made from the substance.

On March 15, 1837, he advertised in the New York Courier and Enquirer that he would execute upon short notice orders for items cast in German silver, and that he had on hand 400 dozen German silver teaspoons, 200 dozen teaspoons of the same material, as well as 50 dozen forks, 50 dozen butter knives, an unspecified quantity of sugar tongs, napkin rings, ladies' scissors, hooks, children's mugs, and other articles. In the same year he relocated to 2 Cortland Street, at the corner of Broadway. On September 13, 1837, he submitted a lengthy petition to Congress urging the adoption of his metal as a substitute for copper in minor coinage. The petition read:

FEUCHTW ANGER COMPOSITION

That your memorialist (Lewis Feuchtwanger of New York City) after repeated labors, has succeeded in making and perfecting a metallic composition, known as German silver, of clean, white, and durable material, of specific value, from which coins and all articles can be advantageously manufactured, as are now wrought out of pure silver.

Your memorialist proposes to your honorable body to substitute this composition for the copper currency of the country, by striking off pieces of the size of a dime, and of the value of one cent, specimens of which he has prepared for inspection. [This is in reference to the pieces known today as Low 120.] Your memorialist proposes to furnish this substitute for copper as cheaply as copper is now furnished to the Mint, and is confident that the "silver cent" thus proposed as a substitute for the cent pieces would be more acceptable, more portable, and will be more generally used in making up the fractional parts of a dollar. Your memorialist prays your honorable body to take the subject under your consideration ....

Sen. Thomas Hart Benton wrote to Robert Patterson, director of the Philadelphia Mint, inquiring about the merits of the Feuchtwanger petition. On January 4, 1838, Patterson replied:

I had the honor to receive your letter of the 14th of October, accompanied by a "memorial of Lewis Feuchtwanger, praying Congress to substitute his invention, called German silver, in place of the copper coinage of the United States."

On this memorial you asked my opinion, to be laid before the Committee on Finance of the Senate at the present session. I have accordingly given the matter my full consideration, and have been led to form an opinion unfavorable to the project of Mr. Feuchtwanger for reasons which I now proceed respectfully to lay before you.

1st. The German Silver, argentan, or packfong is a complicated and very variable compound, as is shown by the following table of analysis, in which:

No. 1 exhibits the composition of the best argent an manufactured by Henninger in Berlin in Prussia.
No.2 that of packfong, a compound long since employed in China and analyzed by Engstrom.
No.3 another kind of packfong, is said to cost, in China, one fourth its weight in silver, analyzed by Dr. Fife.
No.4 compound known in Central Germany for more than eighty years, as the Luhler White Copper, analyzed by Keferstein.
No.5 argent an, manufactured in England in 1833 by Professor James C. Booth, now of the Franklin Institute ....

Patterson went on to relay the specific analyses of the different compounds and to give objections concerning them. It was stated that Feuchtwanger's composition resembled silver closely, so that embarrassment and loss might occur from confusing the two kinds of metal. "Our present coins of gold, silver, and copper do not offer any such difficulty," Patterson said. It was further alleged that alloying was very difficult, and that part of the zinc used in the alloy volatilized when the alloy was made and had to be replaced with a fresh quantity of zinc, therefore making it impossible to produce a compound of consistently uniform proportions.

Once the German silver compound was rejected by Congress, Feuchtwanger did not seem to pay the petition much further attention. He concentrated on his chemical and drug business. In 1839 his establishment was located at 7 Gold Street. In 1840 he was at 320 Broadway as an "apothecary and operative chemist." In 1842-1843 his address was 11/2 Wall Street, and later in 1843 at 2 Wall Street.

In 1838 Feuchtwanger wrote a treatise on gems, a special interest. This was carried through several editions, with the 1872 edition, published many years later, having 528 pages. In 1873 he wrote a book on soluble glass.

Feuchtwanger attended the Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in London in 1851 and wrote magazine articles concerning the gems there. For a time his personal collection of valuable stones was exhibited in New York's Central Park. Later the pieces were presented to the Society of Ethical Culture at Central Park West and 62nd Street. He was a member of the New York Lyceum of Natural History, the American Association of Science, the Maryland Academy of Science, and other organizations. He died on June 25, 1876, at the age of 69.

The token described as Low 124 apparently was a joint venture of two Portsmouth, New Hampshire merchants. The obverse bears the inscription:

NATHL. MARCH, BOOK SELLER & STATIONER NO.7 EXCHANGE BUILDINGS, PORTSMOUTH, N.H. 1837. The reverse describes the activities of another merchant: WILLIAM SIMES & CO. DEALERS IN TEAS, WINES, AND GROCERIES. NO. I PEIRCE'S BUILDINGS PORTSMOUTH N.H.

Nathaniel March was born in Portsmouth on June 14, 1807. He became a junior partner in the firm of Childs & March, the successor to Childs & Sparhawk. Childs left the firm soon thereafter, and business was subsequently conducted as Nathaniel March & Co. until about 1839. After that time the business was conducted simply in his personal name, Nathaniel March. He died on July 19, 1846, after which the trade was continued by Samuel A. Badger.

William Simes was born in Portsmouth on April 9, 1806. He entered business in 1828. At different times Thomas E. Call and Henry F. Gerrish were partners. His business was sold in 1860 to Moulton & Blaisdell, who continued the trade for many decades thereafter. In 1861 and 1862 William Simes was elected mayor of Portsmouth. A third nomination was subsequently declined. The token issued by March and Simes is believed to have been struck by H. M. & E. I. Richards of Attleboro, Massachusetts.

The legend PHALONS NEW & SPLENDID STYLE OF HAIRCUTTING is found on Low 127, a token issued in 1837 by Edward Phalon who at that time was located at No. 35, Bowery, New York City. He began business as a hairdresser several years earlier. In 1834 he was located at Hi 1 Chatham Street, one of at least 11 addresses, including that given on the token, listed for him from 1834 to 1860. In 1842 he was situated at 214 Broadway, opposite St. Paul's, where he sold the" Amazon toupee" and' 'wigs and scalps," for which the American Institute awarded him a silver medal in 1841 and a premium in 1842. The American Institute itself is commemorated on several other tokens of the series, Low 75 issued by Robinson's, Jones & Co., in 1833, being an example. The American Institute conferred many awards and citations on different merchants and products, many of whom used the institute's seal in their advertising, a forerunner of the numerous exposition and fair awards which were to become popular during the last part of the 19th century.

In 1848 Phalon was located at 61 Broadway and advertised his "Chemical Hair Invigorator." Lyman H. Low relates that:

The height of his popularity was reached when, after several other removals, he occupied a gorgeous shop in the St. Nicholas Hotel, where the prices charged for service and for the various cosmetics which he offered for sale were in accordance with the brilliancy of the numerous mirrors, the gilded frames, the marble basins, and their silver-plated fixtures, which adorned the place. Here he remained until the hotel was closed.

Low had a personal interview with him in 1886, but by this time Edward Phalon could not recall specific information concerning the issuance of the 1837 tokens distributed nearly a half century earlier.

The Roxbury Coaches furnished the subject for an 1837 token designated as Low 129. The coaches were large omnibuses with a capacity of 16 to 20 people. Drawn by four horses, they made the route through what later became Washington Street, Boston, to the top of the hill in Roxbury, where a stop was made at the Norfolk House. Low relates that the coaches were handsomely painted in yellow and bore scenic designs as well as such names as Regulator, Conqueror, and Aurora, the latter with the scene of a goddess in a cloud-borne chariot painted on its yellow sides. By 1856 horse drawn street cars had made the Roxbury Coaches obsolete.

Low 133 bears on the obverse the face of a clock and the inscription TIME IS MONEY. The reverse notes that it was issued by Smith's Clock Establishment located at No. 71/2 Bowery, New York, in 1837. Andrew B. Smith's third-floor shop offered a wide variety of clocks for sale, mostly of the shelf type. In November 1838 the firm name was changed to A. B. Smith & Co. In 1841 it was conducted as Smith & Brothers. By that year a branch was established at No. 5 North Fifth Street in Philadelphia. Several different varieties of the Smith token are known today, indicating that original production must have been quite extensive.

The Bergen Iron Works was located at Bricksburg, later called Lakewood, New Jersey. At that time the Bergen Iron Works and its competitors engaged in the smelting of low grade "bog ore." When richer iron deposits in Pennsylvania were exploited, most of the New Jersey iron smelters ceased operations. By the late 19th century remains of some of the Bergen Iron Works buildings, which had long since been abandoned, were still to be seen. Apparently the Bergen Iron Works token was issued in conjunction with a company store operated by the firm.

Lyman H. Low described 183 different types of tokens from the 1833-1844 period. Since that time a number of other pieces, some undated but with devices, inscriptions, or appearances which suggest origin from this era, have been identified by collectors as being part of the series.

These tokens, the size of a contemporary American copper cent, circulated freely at the value of one cent. A profit was shown by the issuers who paid less than face value for them. Eugene H. Richards, a descendant of one of the founders of H. M. & E. I. Richards, informed Lyman H. Low that the token manufacturing firm shipped pieces by the thousands in kegs to customers at 60c to 75c per hundred. A token issued by Clark & Anthony, Providence, Rhode Island jewelers (listed as Low 94) was struck to the extent of 36,000 pieces, for which the jewelry firm paid Richards $270.

The number of well-worn Hard Times tokens in existence today is abundant proof of the status which these pieces once enjoyed as a circulating medium of exchange. By the late 1850s scattered examples were still to be seen in commercial channels.

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