Token US Sutler (J.T.Strong) 1860 to 1865

Exonumia is a branch of numismatics (coin collecting) that deals with coin-like objects that are not really government issued coins. Tokens, medals, medallions, and similar objects are the fancy of exonumismatists.

Urwelcom is the proud owner of a scarce sutler token. As explained at the Civil War Token Society, sutler tokens are special tokens issued by sutlers who supplied the Union Army. A sutler was a vendor who followed the army and sold goods such as those found at a modern post exchange (PX). In this case, J. T. Strong was the sutler. He supplied items such as tobacco, candy, dried fruit, canned goods, writing materials, and sometimes liquor to the soldier who could afford his high prices. Many Civil War sutlers issued metal tokens to insure themselves the trade of soldiers to whom they extended credit. Koehler produced the token for Strong.

Here is what Exoguy at CoinCommunity says about urwelcom's token:

This is a super find! It's an unlisted sutler token. OVI equals Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Schenckman lists a five and a ten cent denomination for Strong, in copper and brass, respectively; similar layout. Both are estimated Rarity 9's. Even the most common sutler tokens are scarce as hen's teeth. Relish your good fortune in this find!

So urwelcom has a rare item indeed. Congratulations!

Here at CoinQuest we are pretty good at figuring out values for government issued coins, but we are far from experts in exonumia. We contacted specialist Rich Hartzog and he has supplied the following information:

A neat piece from Ohio, of interest to the specialist. While unlisted, it is probably already known to the author, Dave Schenkman. Without checking with him, it is hard to figure current rarity. All sutler tokens have increased greatly in value over the past 20 years, but there are very few collectors of the higher priced examples. Currently it should bring $1000-1200, perhaps a bit more to a strong Ohio collector attempting to buy all varieties. It isn't in the best of condition, which might detract somewhat from the value. Common sutler tokens are still available in the $100-200 range, but most bring more.

We have a general page on sutler tokens with general values for all rarities at this CoinQuest link [Press Here].
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