1861 HK-829, Aaron White Satirical Dollar

Coin Details

Auction Record

Description

Aaron White, a Connecticut lawyer with eccentric ideas about money, issued this satirical piece in the early Civil War period, convinced that the cost of the war that began in 1861 would bankrupt the federal government and make greenbacks and every other kind of paper currency useless. He kept his own savings in hard money, and when his hoard was opened some years after his death it held gold and silver dollars, half dollars, two-cent pieces, tens of thousands of large and nickel cents, colonial coins and a great quantity of foreign money. His advice is spelled out across the two sides: "Never keep a paper dollar in your pocket till tomorrow." One face shows a sow hanging from a hook; the other a sow rooting in a jar marked as ten dollars. HK-829 is the copper striking, 35 mm; the design also occurs in brass (HK-830) and white metal (HK-831).

Cross References

HK-829; PCGS #643565