During the US Civil War, metal monies were hoarded for their value, resulting in a shortage of available coins. The Union government issued
official "paper coins" that weren't backed by by gold or silver. This "faith paper" lost value quickly, and for a short while,
stamps were official currency. That didn't take, either, so enterprising individuals took it upon themselves to mint their own coinage. These are now known as
Civil War Tokens (CTWs), and were made and used between late 1862 and mid 1864. On April 22, 1864,
Congress set the weight of coins and
set punishment for counterfeiting coins of up to one thousand dollars and imprisonment up to five years.
Yet there are over ten thousand varieties of tokens, representing 22 states, 400 towns and about 1500 individual merchants.
Melvin and his son Dr. George Fuld wrote
key books in the CWT field, creating the
rarity scale and composition key used by most numismatists. Given sheer number of CWTs, starting a collection might be daunting. Enter
collector Ken Bauer, whose
method breaks down the vast world into
smaller collections, from
anvils to
watches and
so much
more.
posted by filthy light thief
on Dec 20, 2011 -
9 comments
Imagine you live in Portugal and you're moving into a lovely farm house on a large swath of land. The place has been empty for 15 years! While exploring your new property you find a large barn in the trees. The door is padlocked shut and its all rusted solid. so you
grind the padlock open... [more inside]
posted by MegoSteve
on Feb 18, 2007 -
70 comments
How About Raising Money for Him Instead of The Star Wars Kid? Perhaps the most faithful of Delhi's unpaid city servants turns 80 on Tuesday, but has no plans to retire.
Mohammed Habib has had the grisly task of collecting the city's unclaimed corpses since he was 12. He says he has disposed of hundreds of bodies - and all for free - in a country where millions live in poverty.
posted by turbanhead
on Jul 29, 2003 -
8 comments
