Circa 1838 Atwoods Railroad Hotel store card by Bale and Smith. Musante GW-152, Baker-510, Low-201, HT-221. Copper. MS-64 BN (PCGS).25.4 mm. 65.1 grains. An absolutely beautiful example of this token, an issue that has long been recognized as a rarity, enough so that it was granted valuable plate space in the 1882 Bushnell catalog. The surfaces are glossy chestnut brown with gentle reflectivity in the fields. Faint pastel mottling is noted in certain light and nuances of faded original red are detected through much of the field area upon study. Sharply struck with prominent but slightly uneven dentils as usually seen. What is most unusual is the quality, however, as many Atwood’s pieces are quite a bit lower grade than seen here. Always seen as a rarity, it was a surprise when the John J. Ford, Jr. holdings revealed 10 examples of this type (not counting a half-gilt piece, an obverse die trial and two other variants, one in silver!). Ford was known to be the go-to person for the unusual, but perhaps some didn’t realize that maybe better than any of his contemporaries, he <em>knew</em> what was rare, and was willing to retain for his own holdings such pieces in multiples. Today, those tokens are well dispersed, but a look at the quality represented in that sale is informative. The 10 pieces were graded as low as Fine-12 (and Ford still kept it), while only a couple of the nicest ones might be comparable to the quality seen here. This said, considering the combination of quality and provenance, this example is arguably the most desirable of those discussed here.<p>In his November 1862 sale, W. Elliot Woodward described this very piece in his Finotti sale as “fine proof, very rare.” It sold to Charles Bushnell for $11, which was $1 less than a 1795 half eagle in the same sale called “remarkably fine, almost proof.” Just short of two decades later, it reappeared for sale in the Bushnell cabinet where it was described similarly, “Copper. Proof. A splendid specimen of this extremely rare piece.” Baker paid $12.50 for it, apparently outbidding Henry T. Ahlborn. It has been off the market ever since.Ex J.M. Finotti, W. Elliot Woodward, November 1862, lot 1745; Charles I. Bushnell, S.H. and H. Chapman, June 1882, lot 1351 (plated); William Spohn Baker Collection, to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania by bequest, November 15, 1897.
