Token and medal dealer Steve Hayden recently announced the purchase of the Dr. George Hetrich Civil War Token Collection. Hetrich, who died in 1928, was the co-author of Civil War Tokens and Tradesmen’s Store Cards along with Julius Guttag in 1924. Their H&G numbering system was the standard in the hobby until the Fuld books in the 1960s. The entire collection, formed by an anonymous collector, is just shy of 10,000 pieces. The Hetrich portion was purchased in a single 6,000-piece lot in a 1954 Pennypacker Auction sale.
The collector who purchased that lot already had a collection and added to it in the 1950s, ’60s and through the early ’70s, with the last piece being purchased more than 50 years ago. The purchase was made from that collector’s descendants. The family wants to remain anonymous so that part of the collection will be known as the Pennsylvania Civil War Token Collection. Steve has already approved preliminary designs for two special NGC labels to house the collections.
Steve says he has been working on purchasing this collection for nearly 20 years, making two unsuccessful attempts in the past. Prior to that, many top dealers in the field had tried and failed to acquire these treasures. It contains roughly 5,500 different Civil War tokens – making it one of the most extensive collections ever formed. To put it in perspective, Steve Tanenbaum’s collection contained roughly 4,800 different Civil War tokens. Even the duplicates contain many great rarities, gems, and popular tokens. Numismatists George and Melvin Fuld used notes about this collection to produce their books in the 1960s and ’70s, yet the collection has dozens of Unlisted varieties and over 50 unique varieties.
Though the best pieces in the collection have yet to be professionally graded, a number of duplicates are already being sold raw on eBay (seller ID stevehayden). In the coming months as the better pieces are graded, they will be offered on his website civilwartokens.com. He is also soliciting any Want Lists for special items be sent to [email protected].
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