Civil War Token - Real or Fake?

[bk]

I found this civil war token back in the late 70's at a site where coins dating to the 1850's were found.
The token was shown to local token collector who showed me a picture of the same token in a book, but it was made of brass. Mine was not brass.
A footnote said that there were a few patterns that were struck in "white metal". The token collector said that the piece I found could be worth up to $1000.00 if it could be authenticated. I was able to do a non-destructive test on the token using a scanning electron microscope that I.D.'s chemical composition with out damaging the token. The composition is 7.88% Silicon, 25.65% Lead, and 66.48% Tin. "White Metal"?

 

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[mavrick03]

sounds like the ingridents of pewter




Mav

 

[Siegfried Schlagrule]

white metal is a generic term for any white metal other than silver. Ingredients can vary. Best to send to an authentication service and get it slabbed. That ends all debate and makes the token easier to sell. The specific type of civil war token you have is a "store card". It shows the issuer and the location which are both good. On the "patriotics" there is no issuer shown and no location. On those the rarities are the die pairs and a few rare dies. exanimo, ss

 

[bk]

Thanks guys for your input!
Do you know if anyone at TAMs (Token And Metal Society) can perform this service?
I don't think that ANA will slab tokens.

 

[lonewolfe]

Shown in the 4th edition of U.S. Tokens 1700 - 1900 by Russell Rulau on page 517 listed as a copper civil war token Mossin & Marr - rariety is R4 and worth between $25 and $125 depending on cond... It does not list this token being made of any other metal than copper. The piece you have may be of the time period but as a 'home made' piece or, if you're lucky, maybe they did make a few in "white metal" variety and they are not known to which would make it a truly scarce piece and worth considerably more than stated for the copper pieces.. As someone stated here, send it in for cert. to be 100% sure!