One Cent - Hard Times Token - Feuchtwanger New York, NY

Reverse

Wreath connected to ribbon on bottom surrounding ONE CENT. Wreath has berries.

Script: Latin

Lettering:
* FEUCHTWANGER'S *
ONE
CENT
COMPOSITION

Edge

Reeded

Comment

These popular tokens were made by Dr. Lewis Feuchtwanger from his variant of an alloy of nickel, copper, and tin commonly called German silver due to its resemblance to silver. He named his alloy Fuechtwanger’s Composition. He unsuccessfully lobbied to have the United States government use his composition to make coins.
Though the basic design for the obverse and reverse is the same in all, there are seven obverse dies and ten reverse dies having slight differences. They are named with a number for the obverse and a letter for the reverse. The Numista photo on the top is dies 5-H. In dies 6-I the bottom of the eagle’s neck is smooth and there are 13 berries with one at the end of a stem on the upper left of the ribbon.
HT-6-I The most common die variety.

 A reference such as Russell Rulau’s Hard Times Tokens 1832-1844 or Q. David Bowers’s The Official Red Book, A Guide Book of Hard Times Tokens is necessary to clearly see the differences in the die varieties.