(1825-26) Brass Token Rulau-E Ny-921B, Tredwell, Kissam & Co.

Coin Details

Auction Record

$264 AU50 03-25-2020 Stack's Bowers

Description

Brass merchant token issued by Tredwell, Kissam & Co. of New York City, circa 1825-1826. The firm was a prominent hardware and ironmongery merchant in lower Manhattan during the early republic. Hardware merchants were among the most prolific issuers of advertising tokens in early 19th-century New York, as their businesses served both retail and wholesale customers who valued portable trade cards. The Rulau-E (early) designation marks this as a pre-Hard Times era piece, predating the flood of merchant tokens that accompanied the financial panic of 1837. Brass, 22mm. Tokens from the early republic era predate the organized Hard Times token movement and represent the first generation of American merchant advertising pieces. Manhattan's die-sinking community, anchored by firms like the Lovetts and engravers such as John Adams Bolen, made New York the unrivaled center of American token production.

Rarity Notes

Rare. Early New York hardware merchant token predating the Hard Times Token era by several years. Tredwell, Kissam & Co. tokens are scarcer than the more common 1830s-1840s merchant issues. Collected by specialists in early American commercial tokens and pre-Jacksonian era New York exonumia.

Cross References

Rulau-E Ny-921B; PCGS #810527