• May Tenth

        On May Tenth 1837, A lot was going on in the US. Companies were going bankrupt. President Martin Van Buren tried to put a stop to the inflation of the worthless paper money of the states by issuing the "Specie Circular". This stated that deposit banks could only accept gold and silver coin for the sale of public lands.

        This had a opposite affect on what the President wanted and took a inflated economy into a nationwide financial panic and later into the depression. Loans were called in and companies went bankrupt. This caused people to hoard coins out of circulation. This period was later referred to as the "Era of Hard Times". To combat the need for small change wich was being hoarded by everyone, copper tokens starting coming up accross the country in 1837. This token is the "May Tenth" token.

        On the obverse it has "Substitute for Shin Plasters" which is a reference to flood of worthless paper money used accross the States by merchants, banks, factories and could only be used at those specific places. Most of the times they had no real monitary value. On the reverse it makes reference to "Specie payments being suspended" and the date that this happened. Here is one that I recently aquired. I tried to figure out its HT# but I am new to this and would love to see if I am right by hearing some of the expert opinions. The obverse and the reverse are facing the same way. Not like our current currency were they are inverted making this a Rulau 66A which has a rairity of R2.

        Your comments are welcome and would appreciate any advise or comments on the coin or the write up in general.
        Heath