Expert: Ronald Fern - 2/10/2011

Question
I found a 1863 penny. On one side it says Union For Ever. On the other side it says First in War, First in Peace. There is a stature of a man on a horse above the numbers 1863.

Answer
Hi Heather:

Thanks for your question. I just answered one similar to yours. You have a Patriotic Civil War Token. They were struck by private mints to help the coin shortage merchant's were facing due to hoarding. During the war, people started to hold gold and silver coinage and then copper coins were taken out of circulation.

There are two types of civil war tokens, merchant, often with the name, address of the business and a design of what the person sold or dealt with, and patriotic, often with a war related theme. Most were made of copper, and exchanged for one cent in merchandise or value. They came in two sizes, large cent and small cent. Many had "Not One Cent" on one side and the design was very similar to the Indian cents struck during that time. Your token is one of the better known Patriotic tokens, and there are several varieties.

Millions of tokens were struck, and there are over 10,000 different varieties and die combinations of these made during our civil war (1863-4). The tokens are ranked in rarity for common, R-1 (over 5,000 remaining) to R-10 (unique, 1 known). Rarity and condition, along with metal type are the determining factors as to the value of your token. Common circulated R-1 and R-2 tokens trade regularly in the $15-$20 range, with Uncirculated examples bringing up to $60-$75.

I found what seems to be a match to your token listed by one dealer. It is identified as die combination 176/ 271, struck in copper, and sold for $20 in what looked like very fine to extra fine condition. See: http://www.shigitatsu.com/CWT/patriotic_civil_war_tokens.htm

There is a specialized group who collect and deal specifically with this type of token. The link:
http://cwtsociety.com/

Another link listing tokens and there prices: http://mysite.verizon.net/resqje2x/classicnumismatics2/id14.html

You may want to check eBay listings in the exonumia category under coins and currency from time to time to see if tokens like yours are listed and what they are going for.

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Thank You and Good Luck in your collecting.