Coins; Medals; Money; Numismatics; Prisoners of war
No other war prisoners medals dating back to the First World War have
come to the attention of the present author. Yet, there may be some that
eluded him. He therefore would appreciate any additional information
that readers should be kind enough to send him (address: 415 West 115th
Street, New York 25, N. Y.)
III
American War-Prison Tokens and Medals
1. “Historical Tokens”
The study of European money and medals issued for prisoners of war in
1914-1918, aroused—little wonder—the curiosity as to whether similar
items came into existence in this country too. No war prisoners money or
medal originating in the last war is known to the author. In his
collection, however, five related items are found, four small tokens and
one large medal, which are deserving the historian’s and medallist’s
attention. All of them picture war prisons of ill fame. Four pertain to
the Revolutionary War, the fifth to the Civil War. Thus it is pertinent
to consider them all in this connection.
[Illustration: No. 3A
The Old Provoost, New York]
Nos. 3 A, 3 B, 4 and 5 are copper tokens, each 31 millimeters in
diameter. They are not “historical” items in that they have come down to
us as immediate witnesses from the period of the Revolutionary War. They
are rather medallic creations of an outspoken commercial character, but
nevertheless “historical” tokens. Nos. 3 A and 3 B are identical with
No. 1 of a series of fourteen “Historical Tokens” issued by August B.
Sage, a well-known New York coin dealer, in 1859. No. 4 in the present
numbering is identical with No. 2, and No. 5 with No. 5 of the same
series. On the first page of his _Catalogue of Coins, Medals and
Tokens_, No. 1, of February 1859, Mr. Sage announced that “this series
will consist of about 25 tokens, each one giving a correct
representation of some public building around which there is anything of
an historical interest.” No more than fourteen tokens were actually
issued of this series. All of them were advertised in Mr. Sage’s later
catalogue of June 1859. They were executed in copper plain edge and in
copper and brass with reeded edges. In 1859, the set was offered for
sale for $4.00. Mules in copper, brass, and tin are known. Of No. 1 and
No. 6 two dies were made: in both cases the original die showed some
mistakes in picture or legend which were corrected in the second die. In
Chapman’s catalogue of the Bushnell collection a specimen of No. 1 in
silver is listed as No. 462. It was described as of “weak impression,
but very rare.”
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