(1833-5) Token HT-376B, Cincinnati OH

Coin Details

Auction Record

$1,528 MS62 12-04-2014 Heritage Auctions

Description

This 1833-1835 copper P. Evens token is a further variant in the merchant tailor's Cincinnati series, completing the HT-376 die variety group. Together with the HT-375 group, the complete Evens token series encompasses at least six distinct varieties — an unusually extensive program for a western merchant and a testament to Evens' commercial prominence in antebellum Cincinnati. Platt Evens' plate glass windows were a genuine commercial innovation that anticipated the department store display techniques of the later nineteenth century. Before Evens, Cincinnati merchants relied on small-paned windows or open-door displays to show their wares. The introduction of large plate glass panels — imported at considerable expense from European manufacturers — allowed Evens to create attractive merchandise displays visible from the sidewalk, drawing customers who might otherwise have walked past. The Evens tokens document a merchant at the intersection of commerce and innovation — a tailor whose business practices were as forward-looking as the fashions he sold. His tokens circulated in a city that was itself at the cutting edge of American westward expansion and commercial development.

Rarity Notes

Common. Standard copper variant from Cincinnati OH. Rarity R-2.

Cross References

Rulau HT-376B