Lot 225
1837 Braided Hair Half Cent. Token. Del Bland graded EF-40. With some blunt striking as usually seen on these tokens. Cleaned and nicely retoned to a medium dark chocolate brown with some flecks of light red around a few devices and faint traces of verdigris in the fields.
This token design has been traced to Edward Hulseman of New York by comparing device punches used on other tokens he created that are known to be his design. It is available in all grades, and we owe its popularity to Wayte Raymond, who included a space for it in all his half cent National album pages. From there it was duly entered in the Guide Book as part of the half cent series where it has remained listed for many years.
During 1837 America experienced a depression, then known as "Hard Times". Small change became scarce and many merchants coined their own small change, usually in one cent denominations and these hard times tokens circulated freely along with regular mint coinage. Many of these tokens were advertising pieces with the merchants name and address on them, others had political motivations and openly criticized President Andrew Jackson's war on the Bank of the United States or President Van Buren's inept economic policies.
Apparently Huselman coined large numbers of these half cent tokens and they remain plentiful today in all grades, except red uncirculated.
Estimated Value $40 - 50.
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| Realized $121 |
