Legendary HT-187 Huckel, Burrows & Jennings Token
One of the Most Desirable Issuers in the Hard Times Series
MISSOURI. St. Louis. 1836 Huckel, Burrows & Jennings. HT-187, Low-102, W-MO-020-10b. Rarity-8. Brass. Plain Edge. MS-61 (NGC).
29.1 mm. Medallic alignment. Gorgeous, rich golden yellow brass color. Considerable mint luster can be seen in some of the protected areas and lovely flash in the fields. Good, sharp strike. Extremely rare: there may be as few as four of these known, but we can certainly account for only one other, the example permanently impounded in the American Numismatic Society's collection. To the best of our memory and research effort there have been only three auction appearances of a Huckel, Burrows & Jennings token issue in more than 100 years, and the present specimen accounts for three of those (the other was in Joe Levine's Sale 20 in 1976). As the only St. Louis, Missouri issuer of a token during the Hard Times era, and as a great rarity in its own right, we fully expect this piece to see spirited bidding. It is one of the great desiderata in the field. This token was part of the special display of highlights from the Dice-Hicks Collection during the 2008 Long Beach, Baltimore and Phoenix ANA National Money Show numismatic conventions. One wonders if Missouri native Samuel Clemens ("Mark Twain") may have conceived the idea for a character named "Huckleberry Finn" from the title of this firm. Related listing: Western Address Directory, 1837: "Burrows & Jennings / Wholesale and Retail / Family Grocers / Dealers in Fine Liquors / No. 95, Main Street, St Louis."
Ex Virgil M. Brand; Horace Louis Brand; New Netherlands Coin Company; F.C.C. Boyd; John J. Ford, Jr.; our (Stack's) sale of the John J. Ford, Jr. Collection, Part IV, June 2004, lot 181; our (Stack's) sale of the Collections of James E. Dice & M. Lamar Hicks, July 2008, lot 3125; our September 2013 Philadelphia Auction, lot 107. The plate token for the type in the 2015 Whitman reference on Hard Times tokens, p. 155.