Collectible Hard Times Tokens

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Hard Times tokens were minted privately, mostly out of copper, from 1832 to 1844, even though the actual economic depression for which these tokens are named didn’t take place until 1837, when banks began suspending "specie" payments, or the...
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Hard Times tokens were minted privately, mostly out of copper, from 1832 to 1844, even though the actual economic depression for which these tokens are named didn’t take place until 1837, when banks began suspending "specie" payments, or the exchange of gold and silver coins for paper money. Many Hard Times tokens could be used as substitutes for one cent at specific businesses, whose information was usually embossed onto one side. Other varieties were made to resemble legitimate currency, featuring a similar Liberty head to the standard large cent on one side and a reverse reading “Not One Cent.” The early tokens from this period often fall into the category of political or satirical issues, usually featuring commentaries on Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, William Seward, or Daniel Webster. These included imagery such as a donkey marked with “LLD” to represent Andrew Jackson, implying the President was a jackass and ridiculing his honorary degree from Harvard, or a phoenix rising from the ashes, symbolizing improved financial conditions arising from the destruction of paper fractional currencies. One 1838 design that’s become a popular collectible displays an abolitionist message illustrated with an image of a slave bound in chains encircled by text reading, “Am I Not A Woman & A Sister?” Store tokens, also called trade tokens, merchant issues, or store cards, featured advertisements for goods or services signified by familiar icons like a shoe, hotel, comb, or umbrella; the ones from Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island are the most common. Within the merchant issues are a subset called Feuchtwanger tokens, named after the entrepreneur Lewis Feuchtwanger, who produced them as a potential substitute for copper cents from an alloy known as German silver.

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