Expert: Jim Lawniczak - 9/25/2006

Question
I have a indianhead penny dated 1863. It has a 9 feather headdress with no liberty and has 13 stars on its perimeter.There is absolutly no printing to identify the country of origin.On the back is 2 crossed cannons with 4 flags and a drum. It is encircled by a wrerath on the perimeter.

Answer
James, you have what is known as a Civil War Token.  Once war broke out, money was hoarded and became scarse.   First bullion (gold and silver) stopped circulating, but by 1862 and certainly by 1863, even copper cents were not circulating.  Merchants had to do something -- how to make change, and keep commerce going.  So a large number of tokens were privately made and they are still around today and collected.  There is a Civil War Token Society and even several books that describe different types of these pieces.  If in decent condition, depending on whicy exact type you have, they sell for in the range of $15 to $25.  Would be less if the condition is not good or if the piece has problems (cleaning is one, you will only reduce the value, perhaps substantially, if you do anything to try to improve the piece by cleaning it in any way.  If you go to www.ebay.com and do a search for "Civil War Token" you'll see a lot of items like yours up for sale.  Do a similar search on www.google.com and you'll come to a lot of websites where similar items are offered.  Hope this helped, Jim Lawniczak