Thomas Lovelace submitted thoughts on an enigmatic piece, wondering if the California-themed item might be "the last Patriotic Civil War token." Dave Schenkman wrote last week that "I see nothing to suggest that this is a Civil War token. There is no indication of a value, and if someone was issuing a token for use as a coin he would probably include it, especially in a state like California where CWTs weren't issued."

Here are other readers' thoughts. -Editor

"I would agree with David Schenkman that this piece is not a Civil War token, even though a number of CWTs have neither value nor merchant ID (for example: the common patriotic token Fuld 1/229). However, it would certainly qualify as an item of "Civil War era numismatics", the new name of the quarterly journal of the Civil War Token Society, which now publishes stories about not only CWTs but also "numerous other types of items issued during the war, not to mention the countless war-related medals, badges, and scrip issued in the years following the war's end," in the words of President Schenkman. We would invite Mr. Lovelace to send in a story about his find. In my view it's a piece of contemporaneous folk art, maybe struck, maybe cast, definitely carried from pocket to pocket – a neat item."

Michael Wehner submitted these notes. -Editor

"I would imagine that the tokens on tokencatalog.com and featured last week are of California manufacture. I have not seen one in the wild. Bill Hyder may have an opinion."

"I have three in my collection (there are more varieties in addition to my three). It is tempting to attribute the two copper patriotics to the Civil War period, but my white metal example for the Odd Fellows cornerstone laying in San Francisco is dated 1884. There is nothing unusual in the way the state seal is portrayed. There are many variations and the reclining grizzly bear appeared on state publications in the 1880s. I don't remember the reverses for pieces I do not have in my collection, but they were for California themes. I do not know who made them, but I believe it was probably someone in San Francisco. I have never seen one as an inset in a badge or larger medal. I do believe they were issued as stand alone pieces."

"Indeed the bear is not that unusual but how about replacing the miner with a gear? Is this a reference to mining machinery? Miners with pickaxes would be less relevant in the 1880s."

"Bill Hyder's 1884 Odd Fellows "medalet" is most interesting and I think he has a point about these being stand-alones. I found several on Worthpoint."

"I wonder if it is not supposed to be the California state seal but that of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows - which is obviously based on that, but is a little different. It still doesn't match exactly -- but one thing I noticed is that the Odd Fellows seal has the cornucopia."

Thanks, everyone - great topic. -Editor