From the Alan Bleviss Collection of Civil War Tokens.

The obverse portrait, recently identified as Baltimore Mayor James Calhoun by Max Spiegel, is well defined and all legends are clear.

The Barry threepence's distinctiveness may be at the heart of its desirability on equal terms as its rarity. It's the only silver portrait piece of the 18th century, matched only by the Lord Baltimore series a century earlier. This is the only issue by Standish Barry, and it is the only early American coin to show a precise date. The long-time enigma of the portrait added a curious mysteriousness, magnified by the fact that many of the known specimens show indistinctly struck or well-worn portraits.

In brief, the man who made them, Philadelphia engraver Robert Lovett, Jr., stated that 12 original pieces were struck in copper nickel. These were kept by him and never delivered to Bailey, as he feared retribution by Union authorities, the Civil War having begun (on April 11, 1861). However, even at the beginning of the war no one knew for sure whether commercial trading between the North and the South would be allowed while, separately, troops engaged in battle.

Accordingly for a time there were some contacts made in all innocence. Later, the federal government took a stand against this and, for example, marched upon the American Bank Note Company and the National Bank Note Company, both in New York City, and seized plates used for Confederate bonds and for paper money, the last from National, the plates mentioned above.

The number of original 1861 Confederate cents known, struck in copper nickel, cannot be more than 12. Whether all those can be accounted for is not known.

Printed on thin bond paper. Brown overprint on face, portrait of A.G. Spaulding to left, standing batsman to right. Brown back depicts portraits of 12 Chicago White Stockings players with inscription ("THIS BILL IS GOOD / for FIVE per cent in payment …").

Albert G. Spalding was the manager of the National League Chicago White Stockings, the predecessor club of the Chicago Cubs. Though Spalding is best known as the founder of the sporting goods company that even today bears his name, he compiled a .796 winning percentage as a pitcher and won 253 games. By 1889, he was the owner of the club; their record of 67-65 was good for third place in the NL. Among the players depicted on the back of this type is Cap Anson, who served as manager, first baseman, and minority owner of the team in 1889. Anson, the first player to pile up 3000 hits, entered the Baseball Hall of Fame along with Spalding.