(1838) Brass Token HT-83, Beehive

Coin Details

Auction Record

$1,800 AU58 11-18-2020 Stack's Bowers

Description

This brass token features a beehive design with bees on the obverse and the motto "BY INDUSTRY WE HOPE TO PROSPER" on the reverse. The beehive was a powerful symbol of collective labor, thrift, and industriousness during the Hard Times era, contrasting honest productive work with the speculative excesses and financial manipulation that many Americans blamed for the Panic of 1837. The motto encapsulates the political philosophy of the working and middle classes who bore the brunt of the economic depression. While bankers and speculators were seen as having profited from paper money inflation and then escaped the consequences of the crash, ordinary Americans—tradesmen, farmers, and laborers—believed that prosperity could only come through hard work and productive enterprise. The beehive token was thus a moral statement as much as a monetary substitute. The beehive motif has deep roots in Western symbolism, representing organized community effort, self-sufficiency, and the natural order of productive society. It appeared on numerous American state seals, commercial emblems, and fraternal organization symbols. On this Hard Times token, the beehive served as a visual counterpoint to the eagle-and-liberty designs of official coinage, suggesting that the real strength of the nation lay in the industriousness of its people rather than in the policies of its government.

Rarity Notes

Scarce. Brass, 29mm. Beehive industry/prosperity token.

Cross References

Rulau HT-83