New York CTs up for Auction!

A rare opportunity to acquire several attractive American CTs is just around the corner.
     StacksBowers is offering four CTs from New York as part of the John J. Ford collection (part XIII) in their auction at the ANA Chicago World's Fair of Money. There are multiple auctions, but this segment is next Friday on August 16 (only six days from now). The segment includes 1040 lots overall; the CTs are near the end of the session.

A nice oval in "AU-50" condition
from Brooklyn, Long Island.

     In contrast to the Bloomfield, Ohio, CT examined a couple of day ago, these USA CTs are anything but primitive. They are big city, big congregation tokens. And John Ford was a meticulous collector, so the condition is superb: two of them are uncirculated and others are nearly so. All are ovals from the 1850s. There are two different types and three varieties of one type.

This is the lead CT.

     The CTs are from the Reformed Presbyterian Church; that is to say, they are from the Church of the Covenanters. This was a popular denomination in the USA, as many Scots and Scotch-Irish removed to the new world to escape persecution in the UK and Ulster. There were several of these churches in New York and Brooklyn, so I am not sure exactly which church these tokens came from -- the buyer will be tasked with uncovering this history.
     The first CT is from Brooklyn and is dated 1857. It is cataloged as Bason-83/Burzinski-1035. The next three are quite interesting as a set. They are of the same design but produced in different metallic compositions: white metal, copper and lead. The thickness varies as well, ranging from 3mm to 5mm. Were these CTs used at different times? Or, do the varieties reflect some experiments? Both Bason and Burzinski list the white metal (Bason-106/Burzinski-5346) and copper (described as bronze; Bason-106A/Burzinski-5347) tokens, but they did not list the lead one which should be easily distinguished by its 5mm thickness.
     And so, if you want to add a nice American token to your collection, go ahead and place a bid!