(1860) White Metal Token Rulau Ala-19, Mobile Jockey Club

Coin Details

Description

White metal membership or admission token for the Mobile Jockey Club of Alabama, 1860. Dies by George H. Lovett, produced at the order of Joseph N.T. Levick. This is the white metal companion to the silver Ala-4 (1853), produced seven years later as the club continued operations through the final antebellum season. The white metal composition (a tin-lead alloy) indicates a lower-status piece than the silver version, serving as a general admission token rather than a premium membership piece. The Jockey Club obverse die was also muled with several other dies including a cupid-on-serpent motif, a witch on broomstick, and a Daniel Webster reverse. Mobile's horse racing culture would be disrupted by the Civil War just one year later, making 1860 one of the final pre-war racing seasons. White metal, 35mm. Well-preserved examples of this token type are sought after by both exonumia specialists and collectors of American historical ephemera.

Rarity Notes

Rare. Late antebellum Mobile Jockey Club token in white metal, representing the final years of pre-Civil War Southern horse racing culture. Less valuable than the silver Ala-4 but historically significant as evidence of the club's continued operation through 1860. Collected by Alabama numismatists and antebellum sporting history enthusiasts.

Cross References

Rulau Ala-19; PCGS #891366