Coins; Medals; Money; Numismatics; Prisoners of war
No. 3 A shows on its obverse a three-story building. On top a
fourth-story attic is added with four dormer windows. Above the roof
rises an octagon-shaped tower surrounded by a balustrade and surmounted
by a cupola ending in a cross. On the front side of the building at the
level of the main floor an empty space is visible. It was probably
designated in the draft for a gate or entrance door which is, however,
missing. The building is surrounded by a fence. In the lowest part of
the obverse, a large asterisk is placed between two smaller ones. The
top space contains the inscription: THE OLD PROVOOST, N. Y. The reverse
has the following legend arranged in five lines A/ BRITISH/ BRISON/
DURING THE/ REVOLUTION. The third word reads _B_rison, and not Prison.
This inscription is placed within the chain of shackles in a wreath-like
arrangement. The endings converge but do not meet, in the lower part of
the obverse. Between the open ends one reads: NO. 1, and underneath in
smaller letters parallel to the rim: AUG. B. SAGE’S HISTORICAL TOKENS.
[Illustration: No. 3B
The Old Provoost, New York
(Revised Edition)]
No. 3 B, of the same type and make looking almost identical with, but
differing in details from No. 3 A, must be considered as a “revised
edition” of the latter. The obverse is identical with that of No. 3 A
with only one deviation: No. 3 B has an entrance door instead of the
empty space in the front wall of the building. The reverse shows more
divergencies. The wording and arrangement of the main inscription are
identical with that of No. 3 A. But the mistake in the word PRISON is
here corrected, the B having been replaced by a P. In 3 B the
surrounding open chain occupies only the upper half of the margin, while
the title of the token series takes its place in the corresponding space
in the lower half: “AUG. B. SAGE’S HISTORICAL TOKENS.” The half-circles
of the chain in the upper part and of the series title in the lower part
thus form a kind of wreath surrounding the main inscription of five
lines. The numeral, No. 1, appears here in the lower part and is
separated from the last line of the inscription, REVOLUTION, by a small
asterisk between two brief exergual lines. Asterisk and lines are
missing in No. 3 A.
Both types of the token, 3 A as well as 3 B, have on the obverse below
the left corner of the fence, the initial L, representing the name of
the engraver, George H. Lovett, who is listed in the New York City
Directory of 1859 as die-sinker at 131 Fulton Street. He executed all
the Sage tokens and several very pretty Washington medals.
The medallic picture of the “Old Provoost” is undoubtedly based on
Alexander J. Davis’s (1803-1892) drawing that was engraved by Alexander
Anderson (1775-1870) and reproduced in _The New York Mirror_ of
September 10, 1831, in John Pintard’s article, “The Old Jail.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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