For your enjoyment today I would like to share a resent auction win. A 1863 Civil War Token. This particular token is called an "Indian-Crossed Cannons". It's die pair numbers are F-82/351 a. These numbers are a way of looking up all the Civil War Tokens and Store Cards. They are like Breen numbers on regular coinage. The first number refers to Patriotic die #82. As you can see in the photos, I hope, it is the date 1863 along the bottom, and an Indian Head facing left. It also has 13 stars around the boarder as well as 13 stars in the headband. The die is thought to have been made by the Scovill Manufacturing Company. This die can be combined with dies 351 or 3352A. The second die number is 351. This particular Patriotic die depicts an open wreath enclosing crossed cannons, drum and Liberty cap.  This die is also thought to be made by Scovill. It is also the obverse on this token. It can be used with reverse dies 12, 79, 80, 81 and 82. The token has a Rarity number of 1 and 2. Basically it's very common. The "a" refers to the metal used. In this case copper or bronze. All these tokens and store cards were made and used during the Civil War due to people hoarding any government issued coins for their metal content. They were used the same as money. I hope you enjoyed this blog and that I got my facts correct. I'm a novice at collecting these. Please feel free to comment. Thanks for your time.

This is the very first coin I bought with the intention of sending it in to NGC and having it graded and slabbed. That was an agonizing period of time waiting for it to come back and see what it did. I thought it was about an AU but honestly was hoping for anything other than cleaned or scratched or any kind of damaged grade. Very happy when it came back about what I was hoping for! It really made me feel relieved. I think I'll stick to coins already slabbed for a while.