1861 So-Called Dollar HK-831, Aaron White Satirical

Coin Details

Description

Latin, French and Greek wordplay crowds the reverse of this Aaron White piece. A sow labelled "Sus" pushes her snout into a jar bearing a ten-dollar mark, with "Toll Ens" (rooting) under her, "Deux Sous" (two sous) to the right and "Di Oboli" (two oboli, the small copper coins of ancient Greece) to the left, so that the names of petty coins surround the paper-money jar. The rim reads "in Your Pocket" at the top and "Till Tomorrow" at the bottom, finishing a motto begun on the hanging-sow obverse. White was a Connecticut lawyer who hoarded coin because he expected the Civil War, under way from 1861, to ruin the government's finances, and he wanted to remind the public how badly paper money had served it before. HK-831 is the white metal version, 35 mm across, listed beside copper HK-829 and brass HK-830.

Cross References

HK-831; PCGS #643569