(No Date) Token HT-204A, Belleville NJ

Coin Details

Description

This undated token is a variant in the T.D. Seaman series from Belleville, New Jersey. Thomas D. Seaman was a butcher and hotel operator in Belleville whose tokens are among the most famous in the Hard Times series due to the spectacular die error on HT-204 — the reverse inscription "DUSEMAN" instead of the intended "SEAMAN," created when the die sinker accidentally cut the letters in the wrong order or misread the inscription he was copying. The HT-204A variant represents a separate die or production state from the famous DUSEMAN error, though it maintains the connection to Seaman's Belleville business. Belleville, located on the Passaic River northwest of Newark, was a small manufacturing and agricultural community where a butcher/hotel operator like Seaman would have been a prominent local businessman. Seaman's business combined two common antebellum enterprises — a butcher shop providing fresh meat to local customers, and a hotel or tavern serving travelers on the road between Newark and the communities to the northwest. The combination was practical, as a butcher with access to fresh meat could also provision a dining room, and a hotel provided lodging revenue to supplement the butchering trade.

Rarity Notes

Scarce. Variant of the famous DUSEMAN error series. Rarity R-3.

Cross References

Rulau HT-204A