(1837) Token HT-117, New Orleans, Nathan C. Folger LA

Coin Details

Description

This 1837 copper token advertises Nathan C. Folger of New Orleans, Louisiana — a merchant whose surname connects to the prominent Folger family of Nantucket, Massachusetts. Many Nantucket families, including Folgers and Starbucks, dispersed throughout the United States as the whaling industry declined, establishing businesses in cities from New York to New Orleans. Whether this particular Folger maintained Nantucket connections or was simply a coincidental name bearer, the token documents a merchant operating in New Orleans' commercial district during the peak Hard Times year. New Orleans in 1837 experienced the Panic's effects through the lens of the cotton trade. When cotton prices collapsed and British creditors called in loans, the city's cotton factors and merchants faced severe financial pressure. The coin shortage that affected the entire nation was exacerbated in New Orleans by the disruption of international trade that normally brought specie into the port through commercial exchange. Folger's 1837 date places this token at the height of the economic crisis, when merchant tokens served their most practical function as circulating small change in a city where federal copper cents were increasingly scarce.

Rarity Notes

Common. Standard copper variety from New Orleans. Rarity R-2.

Cross References

Rulau HT-117