Hard Times Token – Bucklin’s Interest Tables Troy, New York

Reverse

Wreath with legend surrounding outside and date within

Script: Latin

Lettering:
BUCKLIN’S INTEREST TABLES
1835

Edge

Plain

Comment

HT-349 has a low relief which resulted in a well-worn appearance even after just a little circulation. Thus, most available today are of low grades. It is R-5 with 31-75 known. HT-349 is one of several tokens advertising Isaac B. Bucklin’s 28-page booklet printed in Troy the same year as this token, 1835. Its full title is “Bucklin’s six and seven per cent. interest tables combined, showing at a glance the interest on any sum, from one thousand dollars downwards to one cent, and for any time from two years downwards to one day.” A 2nd edition was published in 1838.

Isaac B. Bucklin was born in Vermont on May 16,1800. He moved across the border to West Troy, New York where he was a schoolteacher. He worked as an accountant and wrote two books on accounting matters. He was the primary person incorporating the West Troy India Rubber Manufacturing Company in 1835. He invented and patented the Bucklin Railway Cooking Stove and also sold stoves. He obtained an honorary medical degree from Castleton Medical College in Vermont in 1848. He moved with his family to Waukau, Wisconsin where he worked as a physician. There, in 1851, he was a leader of a petition to the US Congress “praying for the repeal of the fugitive slave law immediately.” He died August 6, 1851 in Wisconsin.

Liberty Head and a star beneath tip of neck
Pictured token rotated counterclockwise about 50 degrees from coin orientation