Susan L. writes: At a garage sale I recently purchased some coins. One of them is the size of a penny. On the one side it has a liberty head, with the word “liberty” across the headband. On the other side it has a lady sitting on a chair, next to a table. It has the words either “keep your temper” or “keep your teacher” on it. It has no value on it, which make me wonder if it was a monetary coin, or some kind of commemorative coin. I can’t seem to find any information about it, and wondered it you could help.
There are many civil war era cent size tokens that were used by merchants to alleviate the coin shortage then. When the tokens first appeared they looked very much like the Indian cents that were in circulation beginning in 1859. They would have the words ONE CENT on the back. The U.S. government took a dim view of these tokens which bordered on counterfeiting. To avoid the wrath of Uncle Sam, the tokens evolved into advertising or political tokens that were passed as one cent. There are many to collect. Some have the names of the stores that issued them and others have nonsensical themes, at least to us, many years removed from the meaning of the humor or “joke” on the token. They range in value from about $5 on up depending on the type, message, store and condition.
A similar shortage existed in the 1830’s and tokens from this era are called “Hard Times” tokens. They have a completely different character. My favorite political token from this era are the “Am I not a woman and a sister” and “Am I not a man and a brother” anti slavery pieces. You have a good find! Congratulations.
