W.L. WARING TOKEN DATED TO EARLY 1860S

One of my favorite numismatic activities is the monthly Nummis Nova dinner. Started by Wayne Homren a few years ago, this informal “club” is very unusual. There are no officers, no agendas, no dues, and “membership” is by invitation only. We meet at a different restaurant each month, usually in Northern Virginia, and normally have between twelve and fifteen numismatists in attendance. Most of the members bring an item or two to pass around, so it is a wonderful learning experience.

At a recent dinner, I brought the illustrated token and asked each person to estimate its date of issue. Opinions ranged from the 1880s to the early 1900s. The 22mm is struck in lead or white metal, with incuse lettering.

Although extremely rare, the token is well known to collectors. It is listed as number 1203 by Benjamin P. Wright in “American Business Tokens,” which was published between 1898 and 1901 in the pages of The Numismatist. I listed the token in the catalog I compiled of Virginia tokens, which was published in 1980. At the time I had no information concerning. W. L. Waring, but assumed it was struck in the late nineteenth century.

Learning that you are way off base can be a very humbling experience, and especially so when you consider yourself knowledgeable on the subject matter. A few years after Virginia Tokens was published I was leafing through a copy of Edward Cogan’s sale of September, 1863, and there it was; a listing of the Waring token. An examination of some early Richmond city directories revealed that in the late 1850s W. L. Waring and James Pearce went in business as druggists and chemists, at 107 Broad Street. The two men severed their partnership shortly thereafter, and the 1860 directory shows them operating separate drug stores on Broad Street. Waring remained at the 107 Broad Street address shown on his token.

One of our newer Nummis Nova members, Aaron Packard, is an avid token collector and a really talented researcher. After seeing the token, he put his skills to work and soon sent me three newspaper advertisements that he uncovered. The earliest is for “Waring and Pierce, Druggists, Corner 4th and Broad sts.” It appeared in the July 25, 1857 Richmond Daily Dispatch, and advised readers that “the best Soda Water, furnished icy cold, made of the purest materials, and the largest assortment of Syrups in the city, can be found at our establishment.” It ends by stating that “our price is 6c a glass, or $1 per box of 20 tickets”

The use of the word “tickets” is interesting. It could refer to cardboard chits, or possibly an even earlier token that was used by the partnership. We may never know.

Based on the information above, it seems safe to assume that Waring’s token was issued no earlier than about 1860. Thanks to the listing in the Cogan sale catalog, we know it couldn’t have been issued after 1863. And, the newspaper ads indicate that Waring wasn’t in business after 1861. Quite possibly this is the only legitimate Civil War token from the State of Virginia. Even if it was struck prior to the onset of the war in 1861, it almost certainly would have been in use during its early days.

For more information on the American Numismatic Association, see: www.money.org

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