What The Experts Say...

HT B 240

These tokens, long attributed to the Early American period are repositioned to the Hard Times era. Though attributed to New York by Tilton, Wright, Adams, Raymond, and others, the site could never be verified through city directory evidence.

In a little-noticed paragraph in the October 1911 The Numismatist (pp 368-369), collector J. Coolidge Hills of Hartford, Conn. advanced the attribution to his city.

Clinton House, or Clinton Hotel, had a lower part used in business until near the end of the 19th century.

We discount a Hartford connection, however, since our collaborator Steve Tanenbaum recently discovered a review in the New York City newspaper circa 1835 which described the type of food served and the prices charged for food at the Clinton Lunch. Directory evidence is still lacking, but we now believe the rare Clinton Lunch tokens - as always reported - are from New York and also can be safely attributed to the Hard Times era.

(Rulau 9th Edition)