(1834) Token HT-139, Baltimore, H. Herring MD

Coin Details

Description

This white metal token from H. Herring of Baltimore is among the rarest Hard Times merchant pieces, with a Rarity-9 designation indicating essentially unique status. The Herring name appears in Baltimore city directories of the 1830s in connection with "Herring & Inghram," tobacco and snuff manufacturers at 17 Marsh Market Space. A Henry Herring also operated a lumber yard at City Block, suggesting a family with diverse business interests. The Marsh Market Space location places this business in Baltimore's busy waterfront commercial district, where tobacco—Maryland's signature crop—was processed, manufactured into products, and shipped to domestic and international markets. Baltimore was one of the nation's leading centers for tobacco manufacturing in the 1830s, and firms like Herring & Inghram produced snuff, chewing tobacco, and pipe tobacco from the leaf tobacco grown on surrounding Maryland plantations. The white metal composition and large 35mm diameter with plain edge distinguish this token from the standard copper cent-sized merchant pieces. Its extraordinary rarity—over decades of collecting, great collections have been assembled and dispersed without containing an example—makes HT-139 one of the most elusive merchant tokens in the entire Hard Times series and a prize for any collection fortunate enough to include it.

Rarity Notes

Essentially unique. Rarity R-9. White metal, plain edge, 35mm. One of the rarest Hard Times merchant tokens known.

Cross References

Rulau HT-139, Low-173