1826-1827 A.W. Hardie Merchant Token!!!

[paleomaxx]

It's a weird feeling finding something that just might be the rarest thing you'll ever find. When I pulled it out of the ground (at the tavern site with all those 1820's buttons) I figured it was a property tag or maybe a religious medallion. It has a fair bit of corrosion, but thankfully the vast majority of the writing survived.



There isn't a tremendous amount if information out there, but here's what I've found. If anyone has anything to add that would be terrific; I would love to find out more! Here's a photo of an intact specimen I found online:



These tokens were issues by a tailor in New York City and while they aren't dated, the shop was only located at the address on the token from 1826-1827 which gives this token a much more certain, and brief, date range than many from that time period. Incidentally pretty much all of the information that seems to be out there is thanks to Russell Rulau. In his book this token is listed as R-7 for the reeded edge and R-8 for the plain edge. Admittedly this token is fairly worn, but I can't find any trace of edge reeding so this is very likely an R-8 token which means that may be 4 (now) or fewer in existence!

 

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[trapperart]

Nice find congrats

 

[19cbb]

Banner find in my book.
Great score!

 

[DownNDirty]

Very interesting find-congrats

 

[Mackaydon]

Matthew 25, verse 36
Don...

 

[paleomaxx]

That's actually why I thought it was a religious medallion at first. The "Clothed Me" was visible before I cleaned the dirt off and with the hole they drilled I thought it was a church keepsake of some kind. They must have been using the phrase as a slogan which is pretty appropriate for a tailor shop!

 

[port ewen ace]

well beyond just cool

 

[money malcolm]

Tokens are the best.

 

[bill from lachine]

Good going on the rare token.

Regards + HH

Bill

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Congratualtions on the rare token find!