Token - Mormon Do Your Duty Beehive

Reverse

Mormon symbol -- clasped hands in a handshake

Script: Latin

Lettering: UNION IS STRENGTH

Comment

1846 Mormon Do Your Duty Token, Brass, Rulau R-Y4. 18 mm. The obverse has one of the Mormons' favorite devices symbolizing industry -- a beehive -- plus a bird's nest, floral sprays, the date 1846 and DO YOUR DUTY. The reverse has another well-known Mormon symbol -- clasped hands in a handshake -- and UNION IS STRENGTH around. Stuck in brass. These interesting tokens were struck by Peter Haws, a sometime coiner and Mormon who was in charge of a wagon company. Haws had earlier been charged in Nauvoo with counterfeiting U.S. currency. While crossing the Great Plains with the Mormons en route to Salt Lake City, Haws apparently struck these base-metal pieces in the Iowa Territory. This lightly circulated token has grayish-silver fields and lighter silver-white devices with good eye appeal.